China’s video game regulator has granted publication licenses to 44 foreign games for domestic release.
China’s video game regulator has granted publishing licenses for domestic release to 44 foreign games, including seven from South Korea, further lifting severe restrictions that have hit the industry for 18 months.
Netmarble Corp, NCSOFT, CraftonKakao Games and Fat Sisters rose from 2% to more than 17% in Thursday morning trading, a day after Chinese authorities granted them a publishing license.
The approval of the seven South Korean games is significant because China has restricted imports of South Korean content since the 2017 controversy over South Korea’s installation of US missile defense shields. , only two games were approved.
Some of the imported online games approved by the National Press and Publication Administration include: Tencent Holdings “Pokemon Unite” etc. Nintendo Riot Games’ Valorant, according to the list released by the regulator.
The regulator originally released a list of 45 approved imported games. Yoozoo’s “Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming” was taken down Wednesday for no reason. But Yoozoo appears to have already obtained a license, according to documents released by the agency in September.
Yoozoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Regulators also approved 84 domestic games in December, according to a separate list released Wednesday.
The approval of imported games marks the virtual end of China’s crackdown on the video game industry that began last August when regulators suspended the game approval process.
Regulators resumed issuing gaming licenses to domestic games in April, and approval of foreign games was considered the last regulatory restriction to be removed.
Unlike most other countries, video games require regulatory approval before release. Chinathe world’s largest game market.
A year-long crackdown on the industry has hit Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and NetEase Inc hard. These companies generate significant revenue from publishing both homegrown and imported games.
Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company, effectively received a total of six licenses in December through various affiliates, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Tencent won its first commercial gaming license in over a year and a half last month. signal Toward normalization of industry policy.
Other approved imported games include CD Projekt’s ‘Gwent: The Witcher Card Game’ and Klei Entertainment’s ‘Don’t Starve’.
Besides Tencent, NetEase, ByteDance, XD Inc and iDreamSky also received game approval in December.
Shares of Tencent, XD Inc and iDreamSky rose between 0.8% and 5.2% in Hong Kong, while Nintendo of Japan gained 0.2%.
The number of licenses granted is lower than in previous years. China has approved 76 imported games in 2021 and 456 in 2017.
At this month’s year-end conference, Tencent founder Pony Ma said the company will have to get used to Beijing’s strict licensing regime, and the number of new games approved by China will remain limited in the long run. said it would.
