‘Battlefield 4’: China Rising To Ban Game Over DLC
Battlefield 4‘s China Rising DLC is getting the whole game banned in the very nation named in the title. China has gone further than Australia when it comes to game content.
The new DLC for the latest shooter from Electronic Arts has struck a nerve with the Chinese government due to its content painting China as an enemy. The nation’s leadership found the idea so offensive that the title of the game (ZhanDi4 in Chinese) has been added to the list of words not allowed on Weibo, China’s biggest social media site.
Battlefield 4 is getting it worse in China than Saints Row 4 did in Australia, but you can’t say nobody saw it coming.
China has been known for its extreme censorship practices, even removing pictures of a big yellow duck over what it represents. When Battlefield 4: China Rising made China look like the villain (despite its secondary hero being Chinese himself), EA probably knew it would happen. China has a strict anti-rebellion law with its internet content, and if the nation thinks that what you posted paints them in a negative light, they allegedly won’t hesitate to remove your content or even you from their internet.
Battlefield 4: China Rising centers around China and Russia forcing a war against the US. Chinese rebels are up to no good, and in the end, a lot of Chinese soldiers end up being the focus of your gunfire. It really isn’t any surprise that the game is being banned from the very nation its DLC is named after.
China bans ‘Battlefield 4,’ calling video game a security threat http://t.co/Yx5P914ZnK
— Fréderic Louis (@FredericLouis) December 29, 2013
China has labeled the game an act of aggression against their culture, and as such, unfit for their gaming market.
EA’s latest shooter has seen more than its share of setbacks since its launch last month. Server issues plagued it from the beginning, reminding us of the fiasco with SimCity (and Grand Theft Auto V if you want to get technical). Then Battlefield 4 was so glitchy that some online matches crashed before they could be finished. A class action lawsuit followed afterward, blaming EA for misleading investors about the readiness of their game. Now its first DLC is getting the game banned in China.
Considering China doesn’t have a strong console market anyway, the Battlefield 4 China ban isn’t that much of a loss for Electronic Arts. In fact, with China allegedly being among the leading market for illegal downloading and piracy among PC gamers, the ban probably won’t effect EA much at all.
Electronic Arts has seen a lot of bad press over their issues this year, but with their resilience, it’s doubtful that Battlefield 4: China Rising being banned in China will be what takes them down.
