PUBG's Chinese Release Will Be Changed to Promote "Socialist Core Values"

This morning, PUBG Corp. announced a new partnership with Chinese company Tencent to bring Playerunknown's Battlegrounds to the Chinese market under a new publishing deal. However, it seems that there will be some changes made to PUBG for its official Chinese release.

In a statement translated by Reuters, Tencent announced that it will alter PUBG to better reflect "socialist core values, Chinese traditional culture and moral rules."

This is vaguely hinted at in the statement from PUBG Corp. CEO, C.H. Kim, who said, "We will do our best to present a great game to the Chinese users in close cooperation with the company." He added, "Tencent will localize and operate the game by catering to the preferences of Chinese gamers. We will also offer a different, fun experience on PC."

It's not quite clear what "socialist core values" are, though Reuters detailed a similar localization undertaken by NetEase which involved inserting government propaganda like red banners and slogans into its games. It's not yet determined if this is the plan for Tencent and PUBG in China.

There's also the fact that Tencent was criticized earlier this year for getting selling violent video games to children. The Tencent published Honour of Kings was a massive success, but introduced a curfew for underage players. Whether this affects how Tencent approaches PUBG's localization is yet to be seen.

Tencent is one of the largest video game companies in both China and abroad. The company has investments in Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Supercell, and recently Paradox. Getting publishing rights to one of the biggest games of the year is just another coup for the Chinese mega corporation.