PUBG banned in Jordan and Fortnite is expected to be next
China, India, Iraq and Nepal – countries that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently, or has been, banned in. Jordanian news outlet Roya News are reporting PUBG is already banned in Jordan and Fortnite may be taken down with it.
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PUBG and Fortnite are arguably the two biggest battle royale games and both can claim credit for putting the last-man standing genre into the mainstream. Players across the world have embraced both games but it looks like players from Jordan may have to look elsewhere, according to Games Industry.
The decision has been met with anguish by citizens who have an insatiable appetite for a Chicken Dinner. Jordan’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission cited one of the main reasons for the ban was a World Heath Organization study that claims PUBG causes addiction and social isolation.
Cheating isn’t the only way to be banned from PUBG…On top of causing addiction and isolation, they also classify PUBG as a violent video game claiming children who play it will be more violent as a result. While this study is questioned by anyone who has played supposedly violent video games, another study into violence in video games from Oxford University found no such correlation.
Dr Netta Weinstein, co-author of the Oxford study, had a rather interesting take on why other studies may claim violent games lead to violence: “Our findings suggest that researcher biases might have influenced previous studies on this topic, and have distorted our understanding of the effects of video games.”
In China’s version of PUBG, killed players now wave goodbye…Irrespective of the previous study, PUBG is currently banned in Jordan and perhaps more disconcertingly for Jordanian gamers is the potential for Fortnite to join it. Their Telecommunications Regulatory Commission also cite China, India, Iraq and Nepal’s bans for doing so themselves.
India and Nepal have since overturned those bans. The ban remains in Iraq whose Government claim it is a national security threat. Elsewhere, in China it is suspected monetary reasons are behind the ban as a state-approved version of PUBG is available to play.
