The fact that there is talk of a flop in connection with the long-running battle royale Fortnite does not actually occur. One version of the title actually seems to turn out to be such.
It has now become known that the special Chinese version of the popular online shooter apparently cannot be operated cost-effectively or sensibly. Consequence: This version of Fortnite will now be taken offline again in the middle of the month, namely on November 15th.
The China version of Fortnite was a special variant of the Battle Royale title that took into account the strict requirements of the Chinese authorities regarding video games. The China giant Tencent had taken on this task.
After having progressed sufficiently with such a game variant, Epic Games initially announced a trial start in China, but it now apparently did not seem to be sufficiently convincing or could not overcome all the necessary hurdles. As a result, no new registrations for the game in China are accepted.
Compared to the global version of Fortnite, for example, there were no in-app purchases in China and no representation of skulls or blood. Since a final approval from the Chinese authorities was apparently still pending, Epic has now made the decision to save costs and to do without this version completely.
In China, video game consumption has been pretty buzzing lately. For example, the play time available for each child was limited to three hours per week.