Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, will close the battle royale game in China in mid November (via CNET). Fortnite's website has a translated post that reveals that the test phase of the game is over.
According to the post, users won't be able sign up for Fortnite or download it starting Monday. Epic Games will close Fortnite's servers and ban users from logging into the site on November 15th. Epic Games thanked players for taking part in the game and boarding the bus. Epic did not provide additional information about why it closed the game.
Epic Games does not provide additional information about why it closed the game.
It may be related to China's recent gaming restrictions for children. As of August, children aged under 18 cannot play video games more than three hours per week. China's skeptical attitude towards online gaming was further highlighted by state-backed media calling online games spiritual opium.
China has banned children from gaming between 10PM - 8AM in 2019, and also restricted screen time for children to 90 minutes during the weekdays. Tencent, a Chinese technology company, has even created a facial recognition system to catch kids gaming after curfew. China's new 3-hour rule means that restrictions are getting more restrictive.
Epic Games and Tencent teamed up in 2018 to bring Fortnite to China. However, it needed to be modified extensively before it could be made widely available. Fortnite China's wiki page shows how the game differs from American players. One example is that Chinese law prohibits the depiction or modification of skull-related cosmetics. According to the Wiki, players were given prompts telling them to study if they played for more than 90 minutes during weekdays.
