PUBG Was Removed From China’s Top Streaming Platforms, Per Leaker

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PUBG Was Removed From China's Top Streaming Platforms, Per Leaker

According to a recent leak, the popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds began with China’s top streaming services.

According to a recent leak, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was far away from China’s top streaming services. The report is the most up-to-date development within the gradual reduction of gaming in China, particularly for younger generations. Within the past month, the govt reduced gaming for Chinese minors to only three hours every week, creating difficulties for gaming industry companies (and other related parties) within the country’s borders.

China’s relationship with video games and its subsequent culture has been strained in recent years. A few games have responded by either tweaking their content to bypass the government’s censorship laws, and other titles are banned entirely. Following its release in 2013, popular first-person shooter Battlefield 4 was banned due to its depiction of China. PUBG and Fortnite were also banned in China in 2019 after violating new online ethical rules at the time.

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A new leak from PlayerIGN (via TheGamer), a source is known for publicizing PUBG-related leaks, reports that PUBG esports could have led to China. The game was reportedly removed entirely from Chinese streaming platforms Huya, DouYu, and game. qq, though it doesn’t indicate that the Chinese Community Party censored the game on the platforms above. Instead, the removal might be self-censorship caused by pressure from the govt, likely thanks to China’s recent crackdowns on gaming and game companies. However, the choice to get rid of the game from top streaming platforms will likely impact streamers and content creators who play and stream PUBG both competitively and recreationally.

China cites gaming addiction because of the justification behind its recent rules and regulations around video games. Seemingly in response to those limitations, game company and tech conglomerate Tencent has also debuted new face recognition technology that forestalls minors from gaming an excessive amount of. They also need to ban those under 16 years old from streaming (or being streamed). While this doesn’t prohibit anyone over 18 years aged from playing games or streaming, the removal of PUBG will impact its players in China regardless.

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The removal of PUBG will likely impact the game’s popularity throughout China and maybe other East Asian countries with users who increase its streaming services’ viewership. Additionally, streaming is a superb way for developers to realize more exposure – cutting that off could limit outreach. Computer game popularity increased in China when the COVID-19 pandemic began, which caused PUBG’s player activity to double in size – but these new measures might see that growth squandered. There’s no confirmation yet on why PUBG has been removed, but hopefully, some more news will surface soon.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is out there on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Stadia.

Source: PlayerIGN/Twitter, The Gamer

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