'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' News: Devs Will Tweak Gameplay In Pursuit of China Launch

The developers of the highly popular game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" recently said they were willing to apply some changes in its gameplay so they could soon launch it in China.

"PUBG" emerged as one of the successful games of 2017 and broke records for gathering millions of concurrent players on Steam despite the fact that it had only been released in its Early Access program and was yet to have its final version before the year ends.

"PUBG" is a multiplayer online video game with a battle royale theme where the last man standing wins every match.

However, publisher Bluehole Inc. was unable to launch the game in one of the world's biggest markets, China, because "PUBG's" "underlying ideology clashes with what's preached in China," said Pacific Epoch analyst Benjamin Wu (via Bloomberg).

Fortunately for Bluehole, one of the internet and telecommunications firms in China, Tencent, will pitch in to help the developers adjust "PUBG's" gameplay in an effort to meet China's standards and make the game's launch possible.

In statement (via Reuters), Tencent announced: "(Tencent) will make adjustment to content ... and make sure they accord with socialist core values, Chinese traditional culture and moral rules."

To achieve their goals, Tencent said it planned to tweak "PUBG's" gameplay to divert the emphasis from violence and direct it to "the spirit of teamwork and fair competition" so that it contributes by giving "healthy, positive cultural and value guidance, especially for underage users."

It was mentioned in the same Reuters report that Chinese company NetEase, which was identified as Tencent's rival, had also previously tweaked a game so that the government would allow its release.

The said titles released by NetEase were "Terminator 2" and "Wilderness" -- both under the survival video game genre -- where the company incorporated pro-China campaign lines such as "safeguard national security, safeguard world peace." 

After their release, "Terminator 2" and "Wilderness" were named as some of the most downloaded mobile games in China.