![]() ![]() While Chinese gamers had to have known that Steam’s unregulated presence was ephemeral, they were nonetheless angered when the platform’s Chinese version, managed by Shanghai-based game developer Perfect World, was launched in November. Bolstered by an influx of Chinese gamers who joined Steam to play the PC version of PUBG, the platform now has an estimated 30 million Chinese users. The platform has operated in a legal gray for years in China, giving the country’s gamers access to a trove of titles, many of which - like the lawless “Grand Theft Auto” series - would likely not have been approved by China’s content watchdogs without considerable modifications. ![]() Steam is the world’s largest gaming-focused digital distribution platform, allowing users to acquire vast libraries of video games with a few clicks of a mouse. 1 online gaming platform won over hearts in China - and then broke them by bowing to regulators. (A birthday cake featuring PUBG’s tie-wearing mascot was even consumed at the Sixth Tone office.) In December, four primary school students in southwestern China’s Sichuan province were caught playing make-believe PUBG in the mountains around their homes - with one child wearing a homemade version of the game’s iconic frying pan butt-armor. The game’s staggering popularity has spilled beyond an island of virtual bloodshed to real-life phenomena such as PUBG-themed graduation and wedding photos, PUBG-inspired beverages, and a PUBG-themed restaurant in Beijing. But in 2018, the game reached new heights after tech giant Tencent - which holds the rights to PUBG in China - developed and released two officially authorized mobile versions of the game in February. In China, PUBG is affectionately known as chiji, or “eat chicken,” after the “Winner, winner, chicken dinner” message displayed to the contest’s victor.Ĭhinese gamers rushed en masse to the PUBG battlefield in the second half of 2017 via the PC gaming platform Steam, prompting opportunistic local developers to craft their own clones in hopes of riding the coattails of the game’s success. ![]() But while the West got hooked on cartoony free-for-all “Fortnite,” Chinese gamers remained faithful to the title that popularized the genre globally: “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” or PUBG for short. Winner, winner, chicken dinner: The PUBG frenzy rages on.īattle royale games - in which up to 100 duelers are pitted against one another until only one player or squad is left standing - were wildly popular in 2018. ![]()
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