China continues to struggle with the spread of games in the country. We have previously reportedthat children in China are allowed to play video games for no more than 3 hours a week. But the authorities decided not to stop there. Apparently, the next step was to limit the number of games released.
It should be noted that China’s regulatory authorities have stopped issuing new licenses for the release of games in the Middle Kingdom since the end of July 2021. And with the onset of 2022, the situation has not changed. The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) is still not publishing a list of new approved games. This is the longest suspension of new gaming licenses in the country since a 9-month hiatus in 2018 following regulatory changes.
The NPPA has not provided an official explanation for the latest suspension, or information on when the approval process for new games will resume. As of May 2019, the NPPA usually announces new approved games either in the middle or at the end of each month. Typically, 80 to 100 games are approved every month. Thus, since the summer of 2021, as a result of the suspension in China, about half a thousand new games have not been released.
China is generally considered the largest and most lucrative video game market in the world. But in the current uncertainty, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to invest and develop new game projects in the domestic market.
This situation negatively affects the Chinese gaming industry. Over the past few months, thousands of small video game studios and firms have gone out of business. We are talking about companies that develop, publish, advertise and merchandise games. Since July 2021 alone, about 14 thousand of these companies have closed in China. For comparison, in the whole of 2020, about 18 thousand companies working in the video game industry closed.
Larger companies such as ByteDance, Baidu and Tanwan Games have struggled with losses by laying off video game employees. At the same time, local industry leaders such as Tencent Holdings and NetEase have actively expanded into overseas markets. For example, Tencent plans to open a new game development studio in Singapore, which will be operated by its subsidiary TiMi Studio Group (mobile game developer Honor of Kings and Call of Duty: Mobile).
A source: scmp
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