A beta version of the wildly popular video game “Fortnite” will shut down in China after being available in the country for the last three years.
Epic Games’ Chinese version of “Fortnite,” which is titled “Fortress Night” and is operated by Tencent Games, announced on its website that beginning Monday, new player registrations would be closed. Furthermore, the game server will be shut down and users will not be able to log in beginning at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 15.
“The test of ‘Fortress Night’ has come to an end. We will shut down the server in the near future,” the announcement reads in part. “Thank you for everyone who boarded the bus and participated in the ‘Fortnite’ test!”
Tencent is a 40% stakeholder in Epic. Though “Fortnite” never had a full launch in China, it launched under the name “Fortress Night” in 2018 and was available in a “test” mode that excluded certain features like in-app purchases.
CNBC was among the first to report the news and noted that China has been in the midst of a regulatory crackdown of its tech sector, leading to other U.S. companies to pull out of the Middle Kingdom. Specifically with gaming, China earlier this year limited the amount of time kids under 18 can play video games to just three hours per week.
Daniel Ahmed, a video game analyst with Niko Partners, explained in a tweet that the battle royale genre of video games like “Fortnite” are “strictly regulated in China.”
“The domestic games that are approved there have heavy content changes. E.g. No blood / dead bodies / theme is ‘military training’ and not ‘last man standing etc,” he wrote, adding that “PUBG,” another popular battle royale game, was not approved in China either.
Representatives for Epic Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
