New Regulations for Gaming in China
There's Good, and Bad News...
About the new gaming regulations in China announced today by regulators, there's good, and bad news.
The good news is regulators set 60 days as the approval deadline for new games. That is a drastic expedition from the usual timing that would commonly take anywhere from 6 months to a year (with some exceptions) - Games officially launched in China (and fully monetized) are required by law to be approved for a Publishing License/ISBN.
It will help to reduce the gap between game launches internationally and in China, possibly/potentially. It's a win on the publishing side of things, hopefully. It only affects the time required for these operations however, and not the content subject for approval. Don’t expect this to change the landscape of games published in China, regarding their general content/themes.
Bad news is...Chinese regulators keep throwing more and more encroaching regulations, far too often.
The problem isn't so much the specific of the regulations, but the fact that they keep happening. It really erodes confidence both from Chinese and international developers and publishers in investing in the Chinese market. It's simply too disruptive and intrusive to everyone's ongoing plans, and future ones.
Having said that, I dont meant to trivialize how consequential and important the changes in monetization models will affect many games already launched and others under development. This is huge, and we've seen the immediate economic impact of the news as stocks for Tencent, NetEase and other companies dropped.
This comes just a few days after the "China Game Industry Annual Conference" reported growth in the domestic market. So, is the Chinese gaming market growing due to the "wise" guidance of regulators, or in spite of?
Personally, while tempted to comment more on these updates, I won't for now. Rather wait and see what will actually happen and comment on it later, if I do. That's the other thing about China: regulations are one thing, but reality is often something else.
PS: Screenshot used in this piece was originally shared online by Reuters reporter Josh Ye. Follow him for updates on the Chinese gaming market, and more.