The Chinese National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) has published on its site a list of video games approved by Beijing on April 11. This 45-line list is the first of its kind since July 2021, when video games were accused of all ills in China.
Chinese power has never been a big fan of video games
Before the fateful summer of 2021, between 80 and 100 games obtained the necessary license every month to be released in China. In July, the last list, 87 titles obtained the precious sesame, but no foreigner, note The Register. Since then, nothing.
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This 9-month vacuum has weakened giants like Tencent, the world leader in the sector. The company was able to get by thanks to its international income and its other activities, but for the smaller players it was a disaster: 14,000 small developers closed their doors between July and December 2021.
Beijing has never been very geeky. Between 2000 and 2015 the sale of consoles was prohibited, an identity document is required for online games, in 2018, already, licenses were no longer granted for 9 months… The Chinese authorities have long considered date that it is its duty to protect young people from gambling addictions and their consequences on school results and family life.
In 2019, online gaming time for minors was limited to 90 minutes per day on weekdays and prohibited between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. on weekends and during holidays. Limitation tightened at the end of August 2021 to 1 hour of play during weekends and public holidays. Tencent had decided to introduce facial recognition on some of its games to comply with this instruction from Beijing.
At the same time, still during the summer of 2021, an official media described the video game as “mental opium”. The Chinese government was engaged, and still is, in taking control of its technological sectors. Data protection regulations, antitrust fines…
Tencent, the absence that questions
The video game has not escaped this general introduction. As a medium, it represents an additional dimension for Beijing, that of offering a message, a universe, alternative to the one it wishes to impose. Its supervision is of special importance.
The new list of approved games attests to this. Of the 45, none were developed abroad. More surprisingly, the big players in the sector such as Tencent, NetEase or Bilibili have no titles in the list, unlike Lilith Games, Baidu, XD, Seasun Entertainment…
Tencent, hitherto spared from direct attacks from Beijing, is now threatened with a fine for violating anti-money laundering legislation. Difficult to say, at present, if there is a link, or even if the Chinese video game sector has taken off again. For this, we will have to wait until the publication of the next NPPA lists.