Report: China is banning PUBG, Fortnite, Paladins and more

Looks like the Chinese government decided to get rid of popular online-games by claiming them violent thus reducing the Internet addiction among the citizens. The funny bit is that the games in question are actually distributed within the China's territory by the Chinese publisher Tencent. It's like cutting off your own hand - but we believe the government has its own reasons to do so like the aforementioned battling with the addiction.

The information was first published on a local Chinese forum and later summarized by Reddit user. There's a total of 9 games being prohibited and 11 more being applied corrective actions to. The list of those getting banned reads as follows:

• PUBG
• Fortnite
• H1Z1
• Alliance of Valiant Arms
• Ring of Elysium
• Paladins
• Free Fire Battlegrounds
• Knives Out
• Quantum Matrix

All of them are listed for blood and gore - even the cartoonish Fortnite - with an addition of a few other reasons. Like where's the actual gore here? You don't need to be an industry expert to understand the concept of these reasons being obviously far-fetched. Chinese authorities are most likely waging a war against the whole Battle Royale genre as it is not satisfied with the number of players spending their time in-game. "Corrective actions" of unknown contents affect a few games by Blizzard - Overwatch, Diablo and World of Warcraft to be exact. All three of them are mentioned due to the "inharmonious chatroom". What does that even mean? The same goes for League of Legends and 7 more games.

There're very few official notes on the matter. Hi-Rez Studios couldn't provide neither a confirmation nor a denial regarding Paladins' ban - and that's definitely something to think about. Yet, Chinese website IT Home reports that PUBG and LoL are undoubtedly being processed by the government but they are mentioned for different reasons - various levels of violence in particular. Still, it's close to an official confirmation, but it is unclear whether the games are getting irrevocably banned or there's some space for negotiations.