Chinese Fortnite users only have a few weeks left to say goodbye to their virtual characters.
“On November 15 at 11 am, we will shut down the game's servers and players in China will no longer be able to connect,” the publisher of the popular video game, Epic Games, wrote in a statement on Sunday October 31.
Already since Monday, the game no longer accepts new players in China, specifies the company, which counts among its shareholders the Chinese giant of the Internet Tencent.
But what can possibly push Fortnite to give up the millions of Chinese users?
It is the country's authorities, particularly picky about competition and personal data issues, which recently pinned down several heavyweights in the sector for practices hitherto widely tolerated.
That of video games, criticized for their addictive side among young people, has not been spared.
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In August, the authorities imposed a drastic limit of 3 hours of video games per week for those under 18, while some could spend days glued to their screens.
However, the game already had a specific version in China where violent, obscene or politically sensitive content was strictly regulated.
Citing a "difficult environment", the professional social network LinkedIn of Microsoft also announced last month its next withdrawal from China.
Billions of revenue
If this decision risks weakening it, the game phenomenon will certainly fall back on its feet. With more than 350 million users, more than the American population, it continuously generates billions in revenue from the purchase by players of additional content, such as outfits and dance moves, for their characters.
Fortnite has even opened up in recent months to collaborations with celebrities who appear occasionally in the game in the form of avatars.
This is the case of the American singer Ariana Grande who had performed some of her songs online for a weekend this summer.
Epic Games has also already launched events with American rapper Travis Scott and Brazilian soccer star Neymar.
Gambling has quickly become a worldwide phenomenon, to the point that certain games are now watched live by millions of spectators.