Do violent video games promote aggression? Chinese authorities think so. The grisly nature of some games helped trigger a freeze on commercial approvals last year. A censored version of Tencent's battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has recently won approval. The gore is gone. In its absence, Tencent should receive a windfall.
For months, the Chinese technology group could not monetise the global popularity of PUBG in China. Without a commercial licence, in-game sales were banned. The response of the tech giant was to launch a gentler version called Game for Peace.
Gamers fight terrorism as part of military training, instead of killing each other. Within a day of its release last month, it took over as the top revenue-generating app in China.