Despite attempts to adapt Fortnite to Beijing’s regulations, Epic Games are giving up on the market

Epic Games today shut down Fortnite’s servers in China, following up on its announcement a couple of weeks ago that, without giving details, it was ending a lengthy beta of the US company’s battle-royale game in the Asian country.

“The Fortnite China beta test has come to an end, and the servers will be shut down,” the Tencent-owned company said earlier this month. “On 15 November (…) we will shut down the game servers, and players will not be able to connect.”

Players have found it impossible to start playing the game today. They published comments on their social networks, paying tribute to the battle royale. “Friends who have played with me, we will meet again, fate permitting.”

The Chinese version of Fortnite, like other games such as PUBG, was quite different from the multiplayer action video game we know in the West, with changes mainly to comply with Beijing’s strict regulations. However, despite launching in beta in 2018, Epic Games never got final approval from the authorities to launch.

In recent months, Beijing has tightened its regulations on the sector, reducing the limit on minors’ access to video games. At the same time, some games have been denounced for having inappropriate content, decisions that may have had a lot to do with Epic Games’ final decision to renounce China for the launch of Fortnite.

Fortnite remains one of the most popular video games on the market, with revenues reaching 9 billion dollars, according to May figures.

Source: 3djuegos