Epic Games‘ popular video game will close its servers on Nov. 15<\/b>
\nA beta version of the wildly popular video game \u201cFortnite\u201d will shut down in China after being available in the country for the last three years. Epic Games\u2019 Chinese version of \u201cFortnite,\u201d which is titled \u201cFortress Night\u201d and is operated by Tencent Games, announced on its website that beginning Monday, new player registrations would be closed. Furthermore, the game server will be shut down and users will not be able to log in beginning at 11:00 a.m. on Nov.15. \u201cThe test of \u2018Fortress Night\u2019 has come to an end. We will shut down the server in the near future,\u201d the announcement reads in part. \u201cThank you for everyone who boarded the bus and participated in the \u2018Fortnite\u2019 test!\u201d Tencent is a 40% stakeholder in Epic. Though \u201cFortnite\u201d never had a full launch in China, it launched under the name \u201cFortress Night\u201d in 2018 and was available in a \u201ctest\u201d mode that excluded certain features like in-app purchases. CNBC was among the first to report the news and noted that China has been in the midst of a regulatory crackdown of its tech sector, leading to other U.S. companies to pull out of the Middle Kingdom. Specifically with gaming, China earlier this year limited the amount of time kids under 18 can play video games to just three hours per week. Daniel Ahmed, a video game analyst with Niko Partners, explained in a tweet that the battle royale genre of video games like \u201cFortnite\u201d are \u201cstrictly regulated in China.\u201d \u201cThe domestic games that are approved there have heavy content changes. E.g. No blood \/ dead bodies \/ theme is \u2018military training\u2019 and not \u2018last man standing etc,\u201d he wrote, adding that \u201cPUBG,\u201d another popular battle royale game, was not approved in China either. Representatives for Epic Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n