Chinese version of Fortnite with no in-app purchases shutting down in November
Fortnite won’t be available in China anymore. Servers of the game’s regional version will be shut down later this month, as Epic Games might see no sense to continue spending money on it.
The information was spotted by insider arkheops on October 31. New players won’t be able to register in Fortnite China starting today, with the game’s servers shutting down on November 13.
The reason behind this decision is still unclear. Some users suggested on Resetera that Epic Games’ battle royale was less popular in China compared to its competitors like Free Fire and PUBG.
BREAKING NEWS
According to the Fortnite China official website, Fortnite China has come to an end.“The test of ‘Fortress Night’ has come to an end. We will shut down the server in the near future. -” pic.twitter.com/i8T9gcnHWu
— arkheops ✨ (@itsarkheops) October 31, 2021
Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad noted that Epic Games has never officially launched Fortnite in China, as the game didn’t receive approval from the local regulators. It was a special version of the battle royal that has been testing for the past couple of years.
“So ultimately when Epic and Tencent decided to bring Fortnite to China they had a licensing agreement for x years and it’s clear that the cost of changes / operating the game / extending the license does not make sense anymore, given there is no approval for it at this point,” Ahmad wrote.
The battle royale genre has been strictly regulated in China.
The domestic games that are approved there have heavy content changes. E.g. No blood / dead bodies / theme is ‘military training’ and not ‘last man standing etc…
PUBG PC wasn’t approved in China either.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) November 1, 2021
Fortnite China had a few notable changes compared to its global version. The game, launched in 2018 and promoted with the help of Tencent, contained no IAPs, with its matches lasting only 20 minutes.
