ROBLOX servers have been temporarily shut down in China just five months after the game’s release.
Renamed LuoBuLeSi for the Chinese market, Roblox released on iOS and Android but was pulled from the respective app stores on December 8.
The plan is to rebuild the game to better conform to China’s strict regulatory standards.
Fornite ran into similar hurdles in China last year, and thanked players for taking part in the “Fortnite test” before pulling the plug in November.
Irked Roblox players are venting their frustrations at the news that the version they were playing was an archive-deleting test.
The comments section on Chinese video sharing site BiliBili are full of complaints that the game was never marketed as a test version at all.
Lots of players spent money on in-game items that are now gone forever, and are scrambling to get refunds.
Others are using VPNs to access the global version which is often done to circumvent Chinese censorship.
“Last year, we launched Roblox China also known as LuoBuLeSi with a vision to build an immersive virtual universe of 3D experiences in China that we have been testing and iterating on along the way,” a Roblox spokesperson told TechCrunch.
“It is critical that we now make the necessary investments, including investments in our data architecture, in order to realize our long-term vision for LuoBuLeSi.”
The official announcement makes no mention of when a revised version of Roblox will be available in China again.
The Roblox spokesperson says the company was “taking the long view in China” and wants to “build a platform that would deliver a compelling metaverse experience.”
In spite of this setback, they say “that goal has not changed.”
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