Tencent has on late Tuesday shut down its hit mobile title โPUBG Mobileโ in China, replacing it with an anti-terrorist themed game named โHeping Jingying,โ or โGame for Peace.โ
Initially, users who logged into โPUBG Mobileโ after 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday would receive a pop-up notification telling them that the gameโs server is under maintenance, and that they need to update the game.
Hours later, the message changed to an announcement about the open beta of โGame for Peace,โ a game that Tencent has kept secret until its approval by the State Administration of Press and Publication (SAPP) in early April.
According to the notification, the game will be available for download on Appleโs App Store and Android app stores in batches after 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Following the announcement was a thank-you letter from the operations team of โPUBG Mobileโ in China, confirming the end of what the team refers to as the โbetaโ of the title.
Users can update to โGame for Peaceโ using the existing โPUBG Mobileโ client or download directly from app stores. According to a report from media outlet 36Kr, user data from โPUBG Mobileโ will be transferred to its more regulation-compliant successor.
Promoted as a โmilitary skills competition game,โ โGame for Peaceโ claims to have enlisted the help of the recruitment center of Chinaโs air force, and is a โtribute to warriors who defend the territorial air space of China.โ A screenshot from the gameโs beta shows that there is even a recruitment notice for Chinaโs air force on the gameโs loading screen.
โGame for Peaceโ is among the only batch of games that received monetization approval in April. The month saw the number of approved titles plummet from the 170 in March to just 40.
While โPUBG Mobileโ has enjoyed worldwide popularity, raking in more than $65 million in March outside China according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, it has been unable to bring in any revenue in China due to the lack of an approval from the SAPP.
Chinese players had been able to access its beta version, which allowed for gameplay but no monetization. Data consultancy firm Analysys estimated โPUBG Mobileโ had 115 million monthly active users (MAU) in China in March.
Tencent did not immediately reply to TechNodeโs request for comment.
The โPUBG Mobileโ successor is also the first game to feature Tencentโs most recent update to its anti-addiction system, which only allows users 16 and older to play the game and limits play time for those under 18 to two hours.
Scrapping โPUBG Mobileโ and launching โGame for Peaceโ is not an optimal move for Tencent, but a necessary decision since the former is never going to be approved, said Liao Xuhua, an analyst with Analysys.
Revenue from โGame for Peaceโ is almost certainly going to top app stores on both iOS and Android, Liao added. โWhen โGame for Peaceโ brings out season passes, it could potentially beat โHonour of Kingsโ in terms of gross revenue,โ he said, referring to a purchasable access in โPUBG Mobileโ that unlocks more challenges and rewards.
The changes to โPUBG Mobileโ was a top trending topic on microblogging platform Weibo, amassing 380 million views as of Wednesday afternoon. While some users lamented the abrupt shutdown of an entertaining game, others mocked the gameโs name and expressed concerns about future in-game balances.
โI gave up โHonour of Kingsโ and played โPUBG Mobileโ for more than a year, and now you tell me itโs just a beta. Iโm heartbroken,โ (our translation) a Weibo user named โSylvia_tangtangโ commented on a post about the change.
โThe name of the [new] game is in line with socialist core values,โ (our translation) a Weibo user using the handle, โthe skin of lord pilafuโ said.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to include information about Tencentโs implementation of a new anti-addiction system, comments from an analyst, the official English title, and Weibo user reactions.
