Fortnite to shutting down in China as Beijing intensifies video game crackdown

November 3, 2021: According to an update on its website, the wildly popular Fortnite battle royale game, developed by Epic Games, shutting down its local Chinese version on November 15.

Users were prevented from registering for accounts starting November 1.

Epic didn’t provide a specific reason for the reason it was shutting down Fortnite in China.

“Fortress Night,” the Chinese version of the game, was launched in the year 2018 through a partnership with Tencent. The Shenzhen-based tech giant is a huge investor in Epic, owning a 40% stake.

The game technically never launched in China. Although, it was playable in a “test” mode, which excludes some features from the main version, like in-app purchases.

“The battle royale genre has been regulated in China,” Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, tweeted. “The domestic games that are approved there have heavy content changes,” he added.

China is called its tight grip on the video game sector. Games need to go through a strict approval process before rolling out in the country, with Western titles often required to be censored.

Earlier this year, Beijing is introducing even more stringent controls over gaming, with the government limits the time under-18s can play online to just three hours per week.

Epic Games is the latest U.S. company to bow out of China, as the country embarks on a fierce regulatory crackdown on its tech sector.

In the previous month, Microsoft-owned social network LinkedIn said it was closing its local version in China, a “significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliant because requirements.”

The company plans to instead launch a job search site in China without any social media features.