Is EA's Battlefield 3 Disappearing From China's Internet?

Some days, the internet here is a weird thing. This morning, we came across a tweet (via @chassit) that suggested searches for Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 3 — EA’s flagship first-person shooting games — were blocked from Sina Weibo, and videos had disappeared from video sharing site Youku.

We didn’t see a lot of evidence of censorship on Youku; a search for Battlefield titles did turn up relevant trailers and other information about the games, although it’s possible other videos that had been there previously were deleted. A Youku representative declined to comment for this story.

Far more interesting is Sina Weibo’s censorship; we have confirmed the site now blocks searches for Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 3. Oddly, the error message that comes up when these searches return is: according to the relevant laws and regulations, these search results cannot be displayed. That’s the same message that comes up when one searches for politically sensitive topics, and it indicates that Battlefield’s legal status in China may be in some kind of flux or jeopardy.

Some Chinese news outlets are reporting that searches for Battlefield 2 and 3 are being blocked as part of a larger campaign against ten games that have been declared illegal. This information is totally unconfirmed at this point, but if it’s a rumor it’s at least a somewhat logical one. The list of allegedly banned games consists mostly of political simulation games, but also includes Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, a recent shooter title whose plot involves political destabilization in China. Most of the simulation titles seem like they might be “sensitive” (albeit by China’s uber-sensitive standards). But Battlefield 3 makes no mention of China, China’s military, or anything else related to China, so it’s hard to see why it would be on this kind of list — if the list is even real to begin with.

Unfortunately, we don’t know a lot more than that just yet. We’ve contacted both EA and Sina for comment, but have yet to hear back from either of them. For what it’s worth, other Chinese web services like Baidu and Tencent Weibo don’t seem to be censoring anything yet. It’s possible this is just a bug, but it certainly seems to be a strange one.