Monster Hunter: World pulled from sale in China

Monster Hunter: World has been pulled from sale in China, allegedly following a "large number of complaints" issued against the game.

Publisher Tencent has been forced to halt the sale of Capcom's monster hit, which shifted eight million units on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 before arriving on PC earlier this month, setting a record number of concurrent Steam users.

The Chinese version of the game was previously available on Tencent's WeGame platform, releasing the day before its global Steam release on August 9.

Users will be able to refund the game "without conditions" anytime before August 20, the company said.

According to a statement from WeGame, Monster Hunter: World was removed due to "numerous reports" received by authorities that it failed to meet China's strict publishing regulations.

Restrictions include games which feature blood or sexually suggestive characters, but analysts claim that Monster Hunter did not feature any obvious infractions.

According a report in the Financial Times, a source close to WeGame blamed "bureaucratic infighting" which has erupted in recent months, resulting a complete halt of government-issued publishing license for games.

In March this year, Xi Jinping successfully removed term limits for sitting presidents, establishing himself as "president for life".

The ensuing changes saw a new regulatory body -- the State Administration of Radio and Televisions (SART) -- established to handle all gaming approvals.

A recent report from the Beijing-based research firm CNG and China's official gaming association GPC found that growth of the Chinese games market had slowed to single digits for the first time in a decade amid the lockdown.