The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the Chinese government regulator for video games, issued a new rule today that emphasizes the restriction of how much time youth gamers are allowed to play. The new rule states that people under 18 years old will be allowed to play online video games only on Friday, Saturday, Sunday [...]
Despite China’s regulatory crackdown on tech companies, Lisa Hanson of Niko Partners says “Tencent’s silent global quest for gaming domination” continues as it invests in an increasing number of domestic and international gaming companies.
The 19th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (ChinaJoy) took place July 30 - August 2, 2021, with a theme “Create Dreams with Technology and Win the Future with Fun.” There were more than 500 exhibitors across the B2B and B2C segments, nearly 30% of which were foreign, that displayed games, hardware, accessories, and new technological [...]
The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) of the PRC, the regulatory body governing China’s video games market, announced publishing licenses (ISBN) for 43 imported (foreign) games on June 28, 2021. All games to be published in mainland China must first be granted an ISBN. The June 28 batch is a relief to many foreign game developers, as the previous batch of import titles had been on February 21, [...]
The Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee is piloting a new aspect of game licensing to add a Game Evaluation and Rating Guidelines system. The pilot system was announced March 15th and launched April 1, 2021. The new Game Evaluation and Rating Guidelines system is an addition to the existing process, which all games go through [...]
China is the largest video game market in the world with over 720 million players and nearly $40 billion in revenue during 2020. Entering China is often seen as a daunting task for developers, due to the opaque regulatory landscape, yet some of the top games in China today are from developers outside the country including [...]
The second batch of import games approved for release in 2020 China’s game regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) has published a second batch of import game licenses on August 6, 2020. This is welcome news for the games industry as the last batch to be approved was in March 2020 and the one [...]
Apple has confirmed that it will require game developers to have a valid ISBN (publishing license number) by June 30, 2020 for all paid games or games that have in-app purchases (IAP) so they can be legally distributed via the China App Store. Games that do not register an ISBN with Apple before this date will [...]
In February 2020 we published Game regulations in China: everything you need to know as a comprehensive resource for our readers. With the majority of new regulations in place, our observation now is that China’s SAPP has shifted to enforcement, including potentially closing loopholes that have been around for years. We base our analysis on recent game [...]
China’s regulators announced 2020’s first batch of imported games licenses on March 12, the first since November 25, 2019. In 2019 there were also no imported games licenses in January or February, however this could be purely coincidental. This batch has 27 titles, including 16 mobile games, 6 PC games and 5 console games, please see [...]
