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US Gaming Giant Steam Has Managed To Skirt China's Strict Regulations on Content (theinformation.com)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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