On May 9, 2019, a popular Tencent Chinese mobile game known as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) was pulled from China’s app stores. Right after that, it was replaced by a similar game “Game For Peace” which in 72 hours became the world’s highest grossing mobile battle royale title on IOS. Within these three days, the game started generating revenue and collected more than $14 million.
Tencent, one of the world’s biggest game producers by revenue, stopped earning income from their previous game PUBG due to government restrictions in significant areas. However, now with Game For Peace, they have finally started making revenue.
China has also banned violent, sexual, and governmentally sensitive content across many platforms, including TV shows, websites, applications, and even video games, all thanks to the “Great Firewall of China”. They aim to protect children’s health and prevent gaming addiction. Therefore, Game for Peace is only available to players aged 16 or above.
The company further stated that it would limit the gameplay time for people around the age of 16 to 18 to two hours per day. The description on the page of the game states that Game for Peace pays tribute to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in protecting the country’s territory.
Every time a player is killed in PUBG, the screen shows blood splashing with each gunshot. However, in Game for Peace, there is no blood seen on the screen to ensure peace. Instead, before dying, the players ‘wave goodbye’ and show that they are eliminated from the exercise.
In PUBG, the region has 100 players in one match. The players then fight to last until the end and get their hands on the title ‘Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.’ However, in Game for Peace, the enemies are labeled as terrorists. The players serve their duty of the Chinese Air Force in keeping the region safe from terrorists off the map.
Since the launch, within three days, Chinese players spent more than $14 million on Apple’s App Store. On the other hand, in the same period, “PUBG Mobile” only made about $2.2 million in the foreign iOS App Store. That shows that the income of ‘Game of Peace’ was six times as high as PUBG. Fortnite, one of the world’s topmost grossing games managed to make $4 million over the past three days. Eventually, the new Game for Peace managed to outperform this top game as well.
