Pokemon Go’s Rapid Success
The overwhelming success of Pokemon Go is the talk of all the game industry press worldwide this week, and is important news in China as well despite not launching there yet. Niko Partners is conducting a survey now on the use of Pokemon Go in China through VPN channels. We will write an article on the findings in the next few days and send it out to our readers.
Q&A for China’s New Mobile Games Regulations
After SAPPRFT published the “Notice of Mobile Games Publishing Service Management,” many questions were raised by developers and companies in the game industry about interpretations, rumors, etc. SAPPRFT replied answers to questions that were asked the most:
1. Q: Is there a fee to be charged for mobile game publishing review?
A: There will be no fee for mobile game publishing review, or any other types of games publishing review.
2. Q: Is there an expedited processing channel?
A: No, there is not. We would like all game companies to learn about our country’s policies and regulations carefully.
3. Q: Rumor says the review process requires 2 mobile phones and 5 discs. Is that true?
A: No, that’s not true.
4. Q: There are some “agents” who can take care of the review and get publication number for you. Is that true?
A: SAPPRFT never authorized any organizations or individuals to conduct such business as an agent.
5. Q: Rumor says Chinese mobile game must not have English letters in it. Is that true?
A: Some English letters are unnecessary or not licensed, hence forbidden.
6. Q: Do all games need to be reviewed to get the publication number, including games going outside of China and coming into China?
A: For games going outside of China, as long as they are not for Chinese users, they don’t need to be reviewed. All games coming from outside of China to the domestic market need to be reviewed.
7. Q: Will SAPPRFT decentralize and give the approval authority to the province governments?
A: Right now it’s still done at the SAPPRFT level. It will depend on how the industry develops to decide when to decentralize. And that requires the approval of the State Council.
ChinaJoy’s Strict New Rules
Asia’s largest games expo, ChinaJoy, is doing more this year with stricter rules relating to promotional tactics using models. Exhibitors will no longer be allowed to display logos or promotional pictures on live models. Furthermore, live entertainment and models have been banned from the World Mobile Game Conference and B2B venues, stating that “it is not necessary for professional meetings.” This is in light of the changes last year where fines were revealed for models who wear only bikinis or show cleavage (including male models), with fines running as high as 10,000 RMB for pole dancing/cage dancing/vulgar poses
Niko Partner’s Latest Report on Console, Smart TV and OTT TV Gaming
Niko’s newest research provides in-depth analysis on the Chinese console and Android-based TV games market. We published China’s TV-based Games Market Report & 5-year Forecast last week, and it is an important read for those companies trying to enter or expand market share in the segment of China’s games industry that is rising to 21.5 million TV-based gamers by 2020. As a reminder, on May 1st we published China’s PC Online Games Market Report & 5-year Forecast and it also is important as an in-depth analysis of the $16 billion and rising online games segment of the Chinese digital games market. Please contact us for information or buy directly on our online research store.
Niko Partners on Twitter
Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! Here are a few of our tweets from last week:
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