On Wednesday, Tencent Holdings Ltd dropped the hugely popular mobile version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) in China after failing to secure a license from the government to collect revenues from the game, Reuters reported. Tencent said in a post on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, that it was ending its test version of the multi-player combat game, and directed users to download Game for Peace, a similar, 'more patriotic' multi-player battle game with an anti-terrorism theme, for which it won monetisation approval in April. Tencent had waited more than a year for approval to earn money on PUBG via in-app purchases and had even given the game a socialist makeover to comply with stringent government rules, the report said. Game for Peace, which pays homage to China’s military, closely mimics PUBG’s gameplay, with a similar interface and functions to help users migrate their in-game profiles and resume where they left off. The report quoted an analyst as saying that as PUBG had around 70 million average daily users in China, Game for Peace could generate 8 billion to 10 billion yuan ($1.18 billion to $1.48 billion) in annual revenue. https://twitter.com/SvendJoscelyne/status/1126069150407962624 PUBG’s troubles in India, Nepal and elsewhere In India, PUBG was banned in several parts of Gujarat in March, including Ahmedabad (later lifted), Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar, Gir Somnath and Panchmahal. It is also banned in all Gujarat state schools. The game was banned for allegedly inciting violence in children, being addictive, and distracting students from studies. Rajkot was the first city…
