China approves third batch of video games; Tencent still absent

By Brenda Goh and Pei Li

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s publishing regulator on Tuesday approved the release of a third batch of video games after a freeze for most of last year, with industry-leader Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:) still absent from the list of new titles.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television approved 93 games in its third list since December, with Tencent’s domestic rival NetEase Inc (O:) also absent for the third time.

Neither company responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.

China is home to the world’s largest video game market, where 620 million players spent $37.9 billion last year mostly on mobile and PC games, showed data from gaming market researcher Newzoo.

But authorities stopped approving the release of new titles from March last year amid regulatory overhaul triggered by growing concern about violent content and game addiction, particularly among young players.

Tencent’s share price subsequently tumbled, wiping billions of dollars from the stock’s market value. The shares are still down as much as 20 percent compared with before the freeze, and were trading more than 1 percent lower on Tuesday.

Tencent, the country’s market leader in terms of gaming revenue, both produces and distributes games. Its fantasy multi-player role-playing battle game, Honour of Kings, is the top-grossing mobile game in China.

In 2017, it announced it would bring South Korea’s “PlayerUnknown’s Battleground” to China, the world’s best-selling game at the time. However, it has yet to receive a license that would allow it to monetize the game though it has altered the content to meet China’s strict rules on violence and gore.

Though the approval process is thawing, analysts and industry insiders said new releases would still be gradual as the regulator had a backlog of thousands of games.

Including Tuesday’s batch, the regulator has approved 257 games since December when it resumed processing applications after an almost year-long hiatus. Before the freeze, in January alone last year, the regulator approved 716 titles.

With two weeks separating the latest batch from the previous batch on Jan. 9, “Tencent and NetEase will likely have to wait until after the Lunar New Year holiday” running Feb. 4-10, said a NetEase executive, who was not authorized to speak with media on the matter and so declined to be identified.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.