China’s Tencent drops hugely popular combat game PUBG

Chinese tech and games giant Tencent yesterday ceased offering the hugely popular multi-player combat game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” which has been targeted for bans in three other countries. Often likened to the blockbuster book and film series “The Hunger Games”, PUBG pits marooned characters against one another in a virtual fight to the death, and has become one of the world’s most popular mobile games. But authorities in Iraq, Nepal and the Indian state of Gujarat have moved to ban it over fears that it incited violence.

Tencent had been offering a mobile version of “PUBG Mobile” -- which is published by a subsidiary of South Korean firm Bluehole -- for about a year. But a posting on the game’s official account on China’s popular Weibo platform said “testing” for “PUBG Mobile” ended Wednesday, an apparent indication that Tencent failed to win approval from Chinese authorities to offer it permanently.