China Fully Bans Depictions of Blood, Use of the Word “Kill” in Video Games

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The Chinese Government have introduced new laws banning what can be depicted in video games sold within the country.

Previously any depiction of blood, gore and dismembered human body parts were banned. In addition, skeletons and zombies were also banned- as it is considered dishonoring the dead and ancestors. These had been worked-around in the past by changing the color of blood to something other than red and re-working skeletons and zombies into other kinds of monsters.

Now the ban has become much stricter, a new report (via Gamasutra) notes the country is banning anything that can be perceived as blood. In addition to this, the word “kill” cannot be used in the game in any way- from the title to in-game text.

Chinese Tech giant Tencent Games have already adapted to this new law in at least one title. While they handle distribution of Player Unknown’s BattleGround: Mobile in China, the game has now been renamed Game for Peace.

In addition, the game’s death animation has now been replaced with characters placing the items they were carrying on the ground, and then waving goodbye before vanishing. One Twitter user commented it was “hilariously wholesome“.

While the Chinese government began approving games for sale again after a month’s long hiatus, the Ministry of Education gave recommendations to eight other regulatory bodies, asking for less approvals of video games. These were in efforts to combat myopia and so-called video game addiction.

The new law has gone into effect immediately and applies to games that had already been given a licence to sell in mainland China.


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Ryan was a former Niche Gamer contributor.


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