While the popular online battle-royale game, PUBG celebrated its popularity in India with Baahubali-themed outfits, its situation in China has not been as good. After a tussle for revenue that lasted more than a year, developers Tencent decided to withdraw their popular game in favour of a clone which has received regulatory approval to generate revenue.
The anti-terrorism themed game is called 'Game for Peace' and has the same mechanics as the original game. Players can continue from the progress they had in PUBG and the maps are quite similar too. However, the game has a completely different lobby, with an aeroplane hangar and several jets parked around the place.
As Reuters reported, the game has been described as a "tactical shooting game" which "pays tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard our country's airspace", referring to the Chinese air force. Forwarding the socialist agenda of the Chinese market, several gory effects of PUBG Mobile have been replaced with paintball effects after a public outcry over excessive gore in games. The textures on some items have also been changed, possibly to resemble the Chinese military colours.
A change that confounded several players was the animation for deaths. Upon death, characters kneel and wave before fading away instead of dropping to the ground.
This decision has moved players to call out China for being 'brainwashed'. A YouTube comment on a gameplay video read, "Oh China, you are so funny^^ Oh no, 'brainwashed' was the word I am looking for."
Even after being the largest gaming company in China, Tencent Holdings Ltd. has had to deal with the new regulations about the kind of games that are approved for Chinese audiences.
However, business for Tencent looks good. Analysts at China Renaissance said, "With PUBG Mobile having around 70 million average daily active users in China now, we expect Game for Peace could potentially generate 8 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan (8,200 crores to 10,250 crores of rupees) in annual revenue."
PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds was released for PCs in March 2017 and its mobile version came almost a year later in February. Since then, PUBG has garnered international popularity with over 70 million players reported from China alone.
Watch Game of Peace aka PUBG Mobile Chinese version gameplay here:
