Battlefield 4 banned in China, despite not being officially for sale

Though it's not officially for sale in China, the Chinese government has gone and banned Battlefield 4 anyway, on the grounds that the game endangers national security. That's according to China.com , QQ.com and PCGames.com.cn (that last article has since been taken down). I'm going by Google Translate here, but the terms "national security" and "cultural invasion" are common, although "buggy mess " is strangely nowhere to be found. Chinese social media site Weibo has also banned searches for the Chinese translation of "Battlefield 4", throwing up the following message instead: "According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, 'Battlefield 4' search results are not displayed."

The ban comes hot on the heels of Battlefield 4's China Rising DLC, although the government may be a little miffed by the plot of the main game too, which revolves around the rogue Admiral Chang's attempts to overthrow the Chinese government. The ban means that Battlefield 4 can't legally be sold in the country, so in the unlikely event that EA were planning to launch the game in China at some point, that has now been kiboshed. It's not the only game in the series to face a ban from a country portrayed in the series - Battlefield 3 was also banned in Iran, although it was never officially sold there either.

If you're reading this in China and you're wondering what you're missing out on, have a read of our review .

Many thanks to Polygon .

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.