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This is the second in a two-part series on Peacekeeper Elite, which looks specifically at what sacrifices Tencent 
had to make to get its PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS mobile game approved for monetization by the Chinese government. Specifically, this article will outline the key content differences between PUBG Mobile and Peacekeeper Elite, and the effect this new game might have on the esports industry in the future.
Read the first part introducing all background of this story here.
Editor’s Note: While the majority of outlets refer to this game by its rough translation “Game for Peace,” Tencent’s official English title is Peacekeeper Elite. We will be using the latter for these articles.
The Sacrifices Tencent Had to Make to Get Game Approval
It’s hard for any game publisher, whether Chinese or from another country, to release an unaltered version of their game in China. The game publisher owns the game, but the Chinese government has the power to force a company to release a version they believe is right for the Chinese people. This can include the removal of blood, violence, sexual content, and generally any content the government does not agree with. Sometimes, game publishers have to make sacrifices to get game approval.
Credit: Valve
（Lifestealer in Dota 2, left is the Chinese version, right is the western version)
For example, in order to get game approval of Dota 2 in China, Valve/Perfect World changed some characters and the color of the blood from red to green.
Credit: Valve
For Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to be released in China, the blood color was changed to black. 
Credit: Valve
For a long time, the blood color of PUBG Mobile had always been green, but still, Tencent could not receive the approval to monetize their game by the Chinese government. That is why, on May 7, 2019, Peacekeeper Elite, an altered version of PUBG Mobile for the Chinese market, came to light.
The major changes that differ from the original version of PUBG Mobile include:
- Usually, the last surviving player on the battlefield will receive the victory message: “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner.” Now, the last five players will be named the winner of the game. If players make it to the top five, the game will post a message to users informing them that they’ve already won, and will ask whether they would like to continue.
- In the original version of Peacekeeper Elite, if a player was defeated, instead of immediately disappearing and leaving a loot box, they would kneel down, place a loot box on the ground, and “wave goodbye.” Later versions have removed this, and instead, players just disappear in a puff of green smoke.
- Blood effects have been totally removed from the game. Instead of the original green blood to satisfy prior restrictions, it is replaced by light dots.
- There is a “signal field” instead of the classic electricity field, which limits the playing area. Players will not lose HP if they are outside of the signal field, only “signal value.” If the player runs out the signal value, they will still be defeated.
- There is also plenty of Chinese-exclusive military content added into the game. The China Air Force logo appears alongside the logo in the game login page, and the original airship which carries the players to the battlefield has been replaced by a J-20, a China-owned fifth-generation aircraft.
Basically, every change represents an anti-violent tone, which also reflects one term of the game’s name: peace. Compared to a game like Counter-Strike, another violent, military shooter, PUBG’s last-man-standing gameplay is particularly antithetical to the moral position of the Chinese government. For example, the name of Battle Royale comes from a Japanese novel, about kids being forced to fight each other to the death. In a statement released in November 2017, Tencent said it would alter PUBG to better align with “socialist core values.” In an online statement, the Chinese copyright association compared PUBG and other battle royale games to “Rome’s gladiatorial combat.”
Credit: PUBG Corp.
After Peacekeeper Elite officially replaced PUBG Mobile in China, it caused heated discussion online, and many players expressed negative feedback.
Here are a few widely shared comments from the Chinese social media site Weibo, which address the playstyle of the game:
“When my enemies were waving goodbye, I thought they were not defeated.”
“The light dots makes it hard to notice that I’m hitting my enemy.”
“It super annoying about the Top five tips. When the tips suddenly come out, I need to click continue or not, but it already wasted two seconds of my time. What if I’m fighting with my enemy, and those two seconds cause me to die?”
Despite these complaints about Peacekeeper Elite, Tencent finally received game approval by the Chinese government, which means it can monetize the product. According to a report by Sensor Tower, in the three days after the game was listed on the IOS platform, Peacekeeper Elite gained over $14M USD from App Store exclusively in China.
What Future Effects Will This Have on the Esports Industry?
For Tencent and Peacekeeper Elite, receiving game approval is not only necessary to monetize the game but also for Tencent to build larger esports tournaments. Most importantly, sponsors and investors will receive a positive signal from the Chinese government, and will not worry about embracing Peacekeeper Elite. Despite the protests online, this will likely be good news for the PUBG Mobile ecosystem.
Tencent has already announced that the esports tournament series for Peacekeeper Elite will begin in August. It’s possible Tencent will apply its experience of building the Honor of Kings tournament system—the King Pro League—to establish a Peacekeeper Elite esports tournament system.
Outside of China, Tencent has already built several PUBG Mobile esports tournaments. In November 2018, Tencent started its first PUBG Mobile multi-region esports tournament, the PUBG Mobile Star Challenge, with a $600K total prize pool, and the Global Finals taking place in the city of Dubai. The game has its own dedicated servers in the Middle East, where it remains exceedingly popular. According to ESPN, this event gained close to 60M online views.
In March, Tencent and PUBG Corp. announced that they will host a year-long PUBG Mobile Club Open, featuring a $2.5M total prize pool, with Chinese phone brand Vivo as title sponsor.
Chinese teams will play Peacekeeper Elite at home, and teams outside of China will play PUBG Mobile. Although Peacekeeper Elite is strikingly similar to PUBG Mobile, the changes will still influence players’ and teams’ performance. For example, players are required to carry two types of medicine in Peacekeeper Elite; one for HP, and one for “signal status,” the latter of which does not exist in PUBG Mobile. If Chinese teams want to play international PUBG Mobile tournaments, they may need to find a way to practice the game at home.
In the next three months, before China’s Peacekeeper Elite professional tournament series begins in August, Tencent, esports organizations, and their players will all spend a significant amount of time and resources on Peacekeeper Elite. Although Tencent and PUBG Mobile users have made sacrifices, the Chinese game publisher has broken a major gate – game approval in China. The spring of PUBG mobile esports is coming, but what will it mean for future games that, on top of being violent, have similar themes that run up against the Chinese government?
While the changes made in Peacekeeper Elite are subtle for any non-gamer to spot, the fact that not all of them are cosmetic will have an impact on the game’s competitive viability. Changing the last man standing rules and adding an extra health bar will require different strategic thinking. The only way then for Chinese PUBG Mobile players to play internationally is to circumvent the Chinese government, and play using a virtual private network (VPN). How Tencent plans to resolve—and ensure the esports scene for the game grows in all regions—is yet to be determined.
