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China reportedly bans Fortnite

China has reportedly banned Fortnite, the most popular battle royale game in the world.

Brittany Vincent

December 12, 2018 11:45 AM

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It looks like Chinese Fortnite fans may no longer be able to enjoy their battle royale in their country, as the Chinese government has reportedly banned certain games.

After the Chinese government formed the Online Ethics Review Committee in December, a series of games went under review by the Committee to determine whether or not they could simply be altered to fit the country's stringent rules, or be based outright. The list of games that should apparently be banned includes Fortnite. 

According to a Chinese video game form called NGA, the results of the survey were posted to Reddit and include Fortnite and a number of other high-profile games as well as commentary on each title. The list includes games like League of Legends, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, PUBG, H1Z1, and Paladins.

Many of the games have been given "corrective action" status, which means the games can likely be edited to remove the offending content, such as Overwatch, Blizzard, and World of Warcraft. Overwatch's game visuals "promote incorrect values" and it features an "inharmonious chatroom," for instance. Diablo has game missions that "include fraud." However, PUBG and Fortnite have been persecuted for their inclusion of too much blood and gore as well as vulgar content. It's interesting that Diablo wasn't targeted for having "blood and gore," because have you seen Diablo or its marketing? But no one said the Chinese government was good at classifying or evaluating games. You can see the full list below.

The full list hasn't been confirmed by the Chinese government as being correct, nor have the individual developers of each game spoken up to confirm the ban. To that end, it's important to understand that this list could be a hoax or hearsay, especially since Tencent originally spent a great deal of time and effort bringing Fortnite to China earlier this year. We'll bring you more on the issue if it ends up spinning into a factual affair, but for right now consider the story to be still developing.

Brittany Vincent

Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!