SHENZHEN (China) – U.S. gaming platform Roblox Corp. has removed its Chinese app which fronted expansion efforts in the country. It told Reuters that it had taken it down as part of “a few important transitory steps” while it is building its next version.

Roblox released the LuoBuLesi mobile app in July, in collaboration with an affiliate from Tencent Holdings. It was then removed from all mainland apps stores. Users now see a message thanksing them for downloading the trial version of the app when they log in.

Roblox’s Chinese expansion was discussed prominently in its March New York Stock Exchange listing prospectus. This saw Roblox valued at close to $30 billion.

Roblox’s spokesperson said to Reuters on Thursday night that this was needed as the company builds “the next version of LuoBuLeSi”, however, he did not specify when it would be back.

Roblox spokeswoman said, “We knew from the beginning that China would be a complex platform. We are grateful for the help of LuoBuLeSi users as well as our global community of developers.”

It is crucial that we make now the required investments including in our data architecture to achieve our long-term vision.

Tencent didn’t respond to my request for comment.

Roblox is well-known for its virtual world technology now known as “metaverse”, which has become a popular feature of the platform. Roblox has a global LuoBuLeSi version. It allows users create, play and join virtual events.

Many users claimed that the app was not a real test. Sensor Tower, an analytics firm that tracks data and statistics claims the app has been downloaded more than 1.7million times.

LuoBuLeSi was granted the licenses required to conduct business in China by regulators at 2020’s end.