Despite it being an incredibly popular title and a financial success that arguably set the precedent for the current battle-royale genre of games, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds seems to be constantly mired in bad publicity and controversy. Only a few weeks ago, the game was completely banned in Nepal following outcry from angry parents, and now the mobile version of the title has been completely shut down in China.

Tech giant Tencent, which obtained the rights to distribute PUBG in China, was forced to drop the title after failing to secure a license from the government that would allow them to collect revenues from the game. Estimates stated that the game had roughly 70 million players in China. Had Tencent obtained the aforementioned license, they would have been able to generate around $1.48 billion from in-app purchases alone.

It's suspected that part of the reason for the government's decision is due to its growing hostility towards video games that can be perceived as violent or addictive - two things PUBG has become somewhat notorious for in other parts of the world, with a student association in India claiming that addiction to the title is worse than drug addiction. Tencent also licenses the game from a South Korean company called Bluehole. Given hostilities between China and South Korea, it's possible that this was another contributing factor to the game's closure.

Chinese PUBG players, meanwhile, will be migrated to another title called Heping Jingying (Elite Force for Peace), which has been described as being almost exactly like PUBG. The biggest differences are that it's less violent, with characters not even bleeding when shot, and it's patriotic overtones and anti-terrorism themes, which no doubt made it very popular with the government.

Despite all of this, it's unlikely that this will spell the end for PUBG as a whole, with it still continuing to receive updates. However, its own creator, Brendan Greene, has said he's done with the battle-royale genre and has no intentions of creating a sequel.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, iOS and Android.

Source: The Verge