Fortnite – China is shutting down Fortnite

News making the rounds has confirmed that the Chinese Version of Epic Games popular video game, Fortnite, is shutting down in November. As of Monday, 1st November 2021, players could no longer download the video game, as it was removed from the App stores and stopped accepting registration of new players in China.

According to a statement released by Epic Games on their website, they will shut down the game servers in China on November 15, and existing players’ will no longer access the game, as their login details will become invalid. Fortnite was launched in China in July 2018 after Epic Games in collaboration with Chinese Internet and gaming company Tencent. Epic Games had struck a partnership deal with Tencent many years ago after the Chinese gaming giant bought almost 40% stake in Epic Games, and this deal served as leverage to take the game to China.

Fortnite’s success

Fortnite has been a phenomenal sensation over the years. Its popular mode, Battle Royale, sets up 100 players in a fiercely contested battle for survival. It has grown in popularity so much that during its last year’s edition, superstar musicians like Travis Scott and Marshmello thrilled fans with electrifying performances, and the games lore inspired three films by movie director Christopher Nolan.

According to the game’s Twitter account, as of May 2020, Fortnite had over 350 million registered players. This makes it Epic Game’s most popular game, accounting for more than 60% of the entire 500 million accounts that the gaming giant claims to have across its main titles as of June this year.

The reason for the shutdown is unclear

In the announcement released earlier this week, Fortnite Publishers did not state exactly why the game is shutting down, but they claimed that the version of Fortnite played in China was a “beta test” version, and appreciated players for taking time to participate in the game. At the time of filing this report, Tencent has not yet made any public statements about the shutting down of the Chinese version of the game, and Epic Game is also yet to make any clarifications apart from the announcement on their website.

In the heat of the controversy, Daniel Ahmad, a Senior Analyst at Niko Partners who covers video game markets in Chinese and Asia, tweeted that Fortnite could not officially launch and monetize its services in China because the Chinese government “never approved” it. He also added that the Chinese government has been strictly regulating the Battle Royale genre of the game, so Fortnite hasn’t had a smooth time operating within the country.

China’s war against video games

In recent times, the Chinese government has been wedging a war against video games. In August, the authorities prohibited online video game players below 18 years old from playing games on weekdays, and limited their play time during the weekends to three hours max– one hour per weekend day.

According to a report by Chinese government news agency Xinhua, the authorities had in September summoned NetEase, Tencent and other video gaming companies to brief them on compliance to the restrictions placed against making video games accessible to players under the age of 18.
Xinhua reported that the authorities urged the video game companies to abide strictly by the new orders, and not disregard them for the sake of attracting new fans and players, and garnering profits.