US Gaming Giant Steam Has Managed To Skirt China's Strict Regulations on Content

One of the hottest PC games in the world -- "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," a violent game in which 100 players fight to the death -- hasn't been approved for sale by China's strict regulators. Yet the game is a bonafide hit in China, where more than a third of its active players reside [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. The Information reports: Most Chinese players have gotten their hands on PUBG, as the game is widely known, from Steam, a game service that has become the equivalent of an iTunes for PC games around the world. While China's censors have blocked other Western platforms for distributing media, they haven't yet prevented access to Steam, which is operated by the U.S. company Valve. That has made Steam a rare example of a foreign online service that has navigated around China's strict regulations on content, mostly by flying under the radar of authorities, and by being in a medium --games -- with fewer political sensitivities than other categories. [...] Steam appears to operate far more freely in China. A wide array of unapproved titles are available on the service, which is hosted on servers in Hong Kong, a person familiar with the matter said. Those titles include "Grand Theft Auto V" and horror games based on the Walking Dead and Friday the 13th franchises. PUBG is sold on Steam for 98 yuan ($15), about half its retail price elsewhere, a special discount for Chinese players.

Coundown until Steam is blocked starting at 3... 2

[ebrandsberg]

Seriously, by pointing out it can be used to get around the censors, it will be censored probably within a week until the games allowed are filtered based on what is allowed in China.

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[SuricouRaven]

Eventually someone will make a game which really draws the attention of the censors. There are a few subjects that make them very touchy, like Taiwan - even listing it as an independent country on a drop-down box is enough to earn their ire. If someone made something like an RTg where the player controls Taiwan and it's allies fending off an invasion by the Chinese military, you can expect the crackdown to follow shortly. Valve will be given the standard ultimatum: Either comply with Chinese censorship laws

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[jittles]

Seriously, by pointing out it can be used to get around the censors, it will be censored probably within a week until the games allowed are filtered based on what is allowed in China.

I hope. so. According to BattlEye, 95% of the cheaters playing PUBG are playing from China based IP addresses.

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[jittles]

Seriously, by pointing out it can be used to get around the censors, it will be censored probably within a week until the games allowed are filtered based on what is allowed in China.

I hope. so. According to BattlEye, 95% of the cheaters playing PUBG are playing from China based IP addresses.

Source?

The claim is actually higher than 95% but I was going by memory. http://www.ign.com/articles/20... [ign.com]

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[The MAZZTer]

Valve has recently announced they have partnered with a Chinese company to formally bring Steam to China so it's likely Valve is preparing to make sure they're fully compliant in China soon. Source [venturebeat.com]

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[rbpOne]

Steam will be blocked in china at one point, but not really because of politics, since they can still monitor in game messages. It will be blocked to pave the way for a similar chinese product.

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[rhazz]

I don't know, keeping the masses pacified by playing video games (violent as some might be) seems like a win/win. Also, anyone in the western hemisphere who plays PUBG is extremely aware of the popularity of the game among the Chinese. For whatever reason the Chinese (and Koreans to a lesser extent) seem to enjoy playing on North American servers, so you often end up with teammates who can't understand you or killed by a massive team of red-shirt wearing players in a solo game mode.

Self-Explaining

[alvinrod]

If there are a lot of content regulations, that mean what little content that does slip through that fits a particular genre is going to be wildly popular since it may be the only one in that category. I've not played PUBG, but I know a lot of people who play games of that genre or style and it was my understanding that a newer game Fortnite was more popular now, but if that and others (all the similar games that came before and influenced PUBG) aren't available in China, then of course it will be a massive hit.

The same phenomenon also explains the popularity of video games. If they're one of the best mediums for finding creative expression because they aren't being clamped down on, then that's going to draw a lot of people, who might otherwise stick to books or films, to seek them out. If you completely managed to suck the creative soul out of other media forms, I wouldn't be surprised to find them abandoned altogether.

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[Anonymous Coward]

It's uses PUBG because PUBG is what people use [google.com], while PLUNKBAT [urbandictionary.com] is, well...

China is fine with it

[Anonymous Coward]

Just follow the money. PUBG is a subsidiary of BlueHole. BlueHole is a partner of Tencent Games. Chinese owned Tencent is the largest holding company on the planet.

Idea!

[bistromath007]

Now we can permanently get rid of Chinese trading bots, who shit up every game with an economy by offering illicit real money transactions in it, by putting a bunch of games about Tianenman Square on Steam.

iWhat?

[dohzer]

I've got steam, but what is iTunes? Is it a Steam-like service for something other than games?

Re: iWhat?

[Bing Tsher E]

iTunes was Apple's old music promotion deal. In the early 2000's you could get bottlecaps on soda pop that you redeemed for free 'iTunes.' They were mp3 files with Apple's special DRM added.

I think they shut it down when Apple quit making iPods and switched to selling other consumer gadgets.

Why China allows this for now

[AHuxley]

1. Totally understand how people in China are getting around laws. Later the results of getting detected for using not approved content will be as expected.

2. To see and push made in China games back into a global market. Once games made in China can work as their own brands, restrictions and censorship will be enforced.

3. The 1970's method of attracting US and Western investors. Low prices, low tax, new infrastructure to get full investment.
The Western, US brand is studied and once fully unders

I was just in China yesterday

[0xdeaddead]

and honestly was pretty surprised that steam worked at all. Like all of it, messaging, purchase, download all that jazz.

Then again damned near nobody has a PC, buying one is a fucking mission and beyond. I could go down from the hotel and find 30+ stores selling the same cellphones over and over again, but had to drive 2+ hours to find a dingy store that had rudimentary PC parts.

PUBG is made by Tencent... they're Chinese

[wardrich86]

The irony has not gone unnoticed...