On November 15, the wildly popular game, developed by Epic Games, will shut down its local Chinese version, according to a statement released on its website. Also, from November 1, the users were prevented from registering for new accounts. The game developers Epic Games have not provided a specific reason for shutting down Fortnite in China.
As known in China, Fortress Night was launched in 2018 through a partnership with the publisher Tencent. The Shenzhen-based tech giant is a significant investor in Epic, owning a 40% stake. The game technically never had a full launch in China.
Instead, it was in a test mode, though it was launched over three years ago. However, certain features such as In-App purchases were not available in the Chinese version.
What does this mean to the Users?
The post on the website says that the users will no longer be able to sign up or download Fortnite starting Monday. And on November 15, Epic Games will shut down the battle royale’s servers entirely and following that, and the user will never be able to log in to their accounts. The notice issued by the developers expresses their gratitude towards the users (players) for playing it over the years.
However, Epic Games haven’t provided any additional information on their decision to close out the game in China. This announcement comes amid the speculations that it may have something to do with the country’s (China) new gaming restriction for kids.
As per the decisions made by August, children under the age of 18 can only play video games three hours per week. Online games were labelled as spiritual opium via the State-backed media, which points out China’s scepticism towards gaming.
China and Gaming
China, as of late, has announced some drastic measures that regulate the playing time of children. Earlier in 2019, China banned kids from gaming between 10 PM and 8 AM, followed by limiting children’s screen time to 90 minutes on weekdays. These regulations since then have not shown any signs of loosening.
Chinese technology giant Tencent even launched a facial recognition system that identifies the kids who continued gaming past curfew. China’s new three-hour rule means that the country’s restrictions are only getting tighter.
Industry crackdown in China
Earlier in October, Microsoft announced that it would close its career-oriented social network LinkedIn in China. Now Epic Games are the second US-based company to pull a popular product from the Chinese market in recent weeks.
In September, many Chinese video game makers, including the tech giants Tencent, vowed to better police and regulated their products for politically harmful content and promised to enforce curbs on underage players, as they looked to fall in line with government demands.
In a joint statement, these gaming firms promised to ban content that contained politically harmful themes, stories that were historically nihilistic, dirty and pornographic, bloody and terrifying. The regulators in the country had also warned the developers to stop focusing on profit and gaining fans. Also, they insisted that the companies that are identified as defying rules will be facing strict punishments.
Fortnite’s announcement of the decision to pull out the game in China has left a lot of fans in immense sadness. The action-packed shooter and world-building match, which is currently one of the most popular games globally, has more than 350 million users. In China, too, the game was a huge success. Many fans took to social media to express their grief over the loss of the game.
