Moves by cultural authorities don't involve crackdown: expert
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has halted the registration of domestically developed gaming products following an institutional restructuring plan of the State Council, China's cabinet, domestic news site ce.cn reported on Thursday.
Industry insiders said that the reported suspension may be part of a regulatory adjustment involving online games amid China's ongoing institutional reshuffle, rather than a crackdown on the gaming industry.
The report was removed later from that website, but similar stories remained available on other news sites.
The ministry also denied a rumor that the suspension of gaming product registrations had been caused by the recent online fight between Chinese technology giants Toutiao and Tencent, said the report.
When contacted by the Global Times on Thursday, the authority declined to comment on the media report. "Just wait and see," a staff member said.
Several gaming companies contacted by the Global Times said they were not aware of any suspension. "We haven't received any information concerning this matter," said a PR representative from NetEase Games, which runs both PC-client and mobile games. The company has teamed up with US-based game developer Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Tencent, ranked as the largest public gaming company in the world in terms of revenues by industry consultancy Newzoo, declined to comment on the issue.
An industry insider from another major gaming company said that the suspension is unlikely to signal a permanent shutdown of domestic gaming product registration, as no official documents have been sent to companies. "The ministry has not made any formal announcement yet," she said.
The registration channel and related information for domestically developed games is not available on the ministry's website, but the ministry kept open the one for imported online games.
China is the world's largest market in terms of gaming revenues. Domestic gaming revenues are expected to reach $37.9 billion in 2018, while maintaining a compound annual growth rate of 15.8 percent from 2014 to 2021, according to Newzoo.
"If the channel stayed closed forever, it would have a huge impact on the industry, which is very unlikely," Guo Chengjie, an industry analyst at Beijing-based industry consultancy iResearch, told the Global Times.
However, in the past two years, regulations covering the content of online games have been further tightened, Guo noted. "The reported suspension followed the government's institutional restructuring plan. The move might be caused by a policy adjustment," he said.
The analyst added that the domestic industry expects a clearer, law-based approval process will be established for gaming product registration.
"Meanwhile, the authorities will keep a close eye on any improper content in online games," he said.
Domestic games still accounted for a large part of all approved games in the country in 2017, according to Chinese industry database CNG. Among 9,800 games approved last year, 9,310 were domestically produced. Companies such as Tencent and NetEase have been cooperating with foreign game producers to introduce Western intellectual property into China's game markets.
In January, authorities investigated 20 cases of online games that were in violation of the rules and regulations, and they urged game developers to follow proper social values as part of an upgrade of the gaming industry, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The 20 cases involved pornographic and violent content, and some also involved online gambling.
"With such cases in mind, the authorities will further tighten regulations on games in the near future. They will also make targeted rules to protect teenagers and purify the industry environment," Guo said.
Some regular game players told the Global Times they also believed that there would not be an absolute ban.
"How could it be possible that China will give up this rising potential market?" a 30-something white-collar surnamed Li said.
He said he spends about five hours a day playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is a way of relaxing as well as socializing with others.
