New list of video games banned from live-streaming, Tencent’s new game is spared

Video platforms are now banned from streaming more than 20 electronic games, according to a social media post (in Chinese) from 3DMGame. The post includes a notice that appears to come from video company Bilibili and lists the newly-banned games.

They include the popular Battle Royale game H1Z1, survival horror game Dead by Daylight, first-person shooter franchise Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, and  a variety of “gal games” — a subgenre of dating simulators for male players.

The announcement says that the order came from the Ministry of Culture, which asked live-streaming platforms to “tighten control over content, ban games that contain bloody, violent, and pornographic elements, [and] improve self-censorship and self-discipline” in order to “create a good environment of online culture.”

Missing from the list is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), an online multiplayer video game that shares the same worldview and mechanism with H1Z1, which is on the list. When Tencent acquired exclusive Chinese operating rights of PUBG last year, the hit game was at risk of being banned due to “improper content” flagged by the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association. But it seems that PUBG is now free from regulatory hassles after Tencent announced (in Chinese) its cooperation with some state media organizations, including the People’s Daily, in the interest of “promoting positive values” through the game.