Tencent gains exclusive agency rights of popular game PUBG in China

Chinese social networking giant Tencent has announced a new deal with South Korea's Bluehole Studio for the exclusive rights for the popular PC game "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" in China.

"Playerunknown's Battlegrounds," or PUBG, has become a hit game since its release in March, 2017. It has been sold over 20 million copies worldwide, breaking multiple records. 

Young Chinese players play the online video game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, during an electronic sports competition in Yantai city, east China's Shandong province, 23 September 2017.[Photo: IC]

It has also won several international awards, including the 2017 Golden Joystick Awards as the best multiple player PC game.

PUBG is now more popular in China than "Arena of Valor."

However, players in China had to purchase game accelerators to ensure the smooth running of PUBG, as they were using foreign game servers.

Kim Changhan, CEO of Bluehole Studio, said that his company hopes that its cooperation with Tencent will bring a better game experience to Chinese players.

Senior vice chairman of Tencent, Ma Xiaoyi, is promising to try to ensure against plug-ins or cheating programs.

Tencent does admit it will have to adjust some of the content of the game so that it falls in line with Chinese laws.