Since 2021, China has been tightening the screws when it comes to video games. And squeeze it tight. The government points the finger at them for their addictive side. With a whole slew of restrictions, he intends to protect his young people from extreme and unhealthy consumption. As a result, video game companies have it tough in China. For many months, the government had frozen the granting of new licenses. And without a license, there is no commercialization on the market. And no marketing… In short, you understand.
But finally, the delivery sounded: for the first time in 18 months, China has granted licenses to foreign video games. The light is therefore green for 44 of them. If the blockade had been lifted since last April, no opus outside China had yet obtained a license. Until this week.
China is easing
China and video games is a stormy story. The government regularly shuns the market, finally changing its mind after several months. This was already the case in 2018 when the video game approval system stopped working… To start again nine months later. This time, the blockade lasted eighteen months. And that did not suit players in the video game market.
Among the various foreign games that have (finally) obtained the approval of the Chinese government, we find Pokemon Unite as well as Valorant. Tencent, shareholder of the publishers of Fortnite or League of Legends, has been showing a white paw to the government for a while. Thus, he unveiled a facial recognition system in July 2021, in order to comply with the rules imposed. As a result, the company is granted six licenses by China.
For their part, CD Projekt, Klei Entertainment, XD and iDreamSky are not doing too badly either. If we do not have the exact titles concerned, we know that these publishers have received marketing authorizations from the government. Finally, China granted 83 licenses to video games designed by home studios.
If these licensing agreements are good news for the market, nothing is won yet. Gamers are not the best off in China. Indeed, there are many restrictions to limit the effect considered harmful of the latter.
First, Chinese miners can only play for three hours a week. Worse: only on weekends and one hour a day. Since last year, gamers under the age of 16 can no longer broadcast their video game games during livestream in China.
