Chinese regulators yesterday approved 44 new foreign video game titles, the first to be allowed to hit the market since an industry crackdown to rein in minors’ gaming habits swept the sector last year.
Beijing moved against the country’s vibrant gaming sector in August last year as part of a sprawling crackdown on big tech companies, including a cap on the amount of time that children could spend playing games.
Officials also froze approvals of new titles for nine months until April, but a growing number of domestic titles have been approved since then.
Photo: Bloomberg
China’s gaming regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration, yesterday said that it had approved 44 new imported games this month, including Nintendo Co’s Pokemon Unite.
It separately approved 84 new domestic titles.
The body normally approves foreign titles in batches a few times per year.
The previous foreign game approvals to be handed out were in June last year.
Earlier this month, China granted homegrown tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) its first video game license in 18 months, ending a dry spell that had threatened its position as the world’s top game maker.
China’s video game market shrank more than 19 percent year-on-year last month, a report by Chinese gaming consultancy Gamma Data said yesterday.
The approval signals a relaxing of China’s strict attitude toward tech companies, although games are still censored for politically incorrect themes.
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