Variety: China will not ban Fortnite and Paladins
The Chinese “blacklist” of titles rejected by the Ethics Committee of Online Games does not correspond to reality, according to Variety sources. Neither Fortnite, nor Paladins, nor the other 18 games from the list were banned, the newspaper writes.
On December 10, a list appeared on the NGA forum indicating the games reviewed by the committee. Nine games, judging by the notes on the list, were rejected. Among them: Fortnite, PUBG, Paladins, H1Z1. The remaining 11 games were sent for revision to “comply with generally accepted standards.”
However, Variety sources pointed out a contradiction in the list: Fortnite was assigned the status “rejected due to bloody and violent scenes“, although there is no blood in this game.
The publication also reminds that in reality China has not yet imposed any restrictions and has not officially talked about bans. Chinese state media reported only on the creation of an Ethics Committee for online Gaming. They did not mention the possible ban of games from the list.
Other opinion
Despite the information from Variety, there is still no certainty in the situation with the “blacklist” of games. So, a message from Stew Chisam, president of Hi-Rez Studios, which released Paladins, appeared on PCGamesN:
Everything about Paladins, including game support and interaction with the government, is handled by Tencent in China. Currently, Hi-Rez can neither confirm nor deny reports of government bans. And also can not give any information about the completion of the game.
President of Hi-Rez Studios
If the rumor about the ban of games turns out to be true, then Blizzard, NetEase and Tencent will be the hardest hit. The list includes three games published by Blizzard, four NetEase games and six Tencent games. The status “rejected” is assigned to Fortnite, PUBG, Paladins and Ring of Elysium from Tencent, as well as Knives Out and Quantum Matrix from NetEase.
Earlier, Blizzard reported on Weibo that it had not received any messages from the Chinese government regarding the adjustment of Diablo III. This post was subsequently deleted. PCGamesN has requested a comment from Blizzard, as well as from Epic Games, but there is no response from the companies yet.
Let’s add that Tencent, as the largest game publisher in China, invested $15 million in the Chinese version of Fortnite. And in order to publish PUBG in the country, Tencent signed a special agreement with the Chinese government in November last year.
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