Thaw in China? Government Allowed New Games to be Sold
The Chinese government resumed licensing of games published in the country. The local market will soon receive 45 new titles.
- China has resumed game licensing after a 9-month hiatus;
- 45 titles by local developers have been approved;
- Throughout the year, the number could rise up to 700 games.
No new games have appeared on the Chinese market for nine months now. The authority regulating the industry there stopped issuing licenses, thus blocking the sale of individual productions.
Yesterday, the period apparently came to an end, as 45 games have been approved and will be made available to the local audience. We're talking about works of such studios as Baidu, XD Inc. and iDreamSky. So far, no productions from outside China have received a license.
The beginning of a thaw in China?
As predicted by analysts at Niko Partners this may start a whole wave of new license approvals. According to experts, 500 to 700 new titles may be released in the country this year.
This is good news for the local game industry, which has suffered heavily from the current restrictions. In 2021 as many as 14 thousand development studios disappeared from the local market in 2021, failing to stay afloat.
The closure of so many companies was associated with a variety of problems in the market, but the restriction of game licensing definitely did not help them.
The resumption of the process of issuing licenses does not mean, however, that Western games will enter the local market. Games in China still have to meet a whole set of stringent requirements.
- Productions must represent values in accordance with the requirements of the local authorities. These include the proper representation of history and respect for local culture.
- This applies even to such absurd regulations as the prohibition on depicting "effeminate men" in video games.
Moreover, the game industry in China is in a problematic position. The authorities there are negative towards digital entrtainment and try to discourage the society.
They also strive to achieve this by introducing hard restrictions. Chinese teenagers are only allowed to play at certain times of the day and at the same time adhere to a pre-imposed hourly limit.
The resumption of the approval process for new games in China should not, therefore, be seen as an announcement of a complete change of policy by the government there. The country will most likely remain a hermetic market closed to outside influences.
