Fortnite China Closes Its Doors

Fortnite China, the Chinese-exclusive version of Epic’s popular Battle Royale game is shutting down, though no reason has been given.

Technically, the China version of Fortnite had never launched- it was always described as having been in an extended test phase, and the website simply refers to the game as ending its Beta.

Starting today (November 1st), you can no longer create new accounts for the service- and players can keep playing until November 15th, which is when they would begin to shut down its servers.

The game has several marked differences from the version of Fortnite most people would be familiar with- in compliance with China’s stringent laws on gaming, it’s completely decentralized lootbox purchases from its game design.

A huge difference was how it treated Victory Royales- rather than awarding them to the very last player standing, multiple players could claim it if they went long enough without dying.

It also featured some other gameplay changes- for one, the storm that forces you to keep moving no longer damaged your health, instead draining a separate bar and eliminating you if you allowed it to empty.

This will likely have next to no effect on Fortnite’s popularity- the game is massively popular and even moreso profitable, earning a bulk of the Epic Games Store’s earnings. Considering this version was only sold to one market without its key monetization, it’s safe to assume this won’t hurt Epic all that much.

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