Recently, Chinese officials unveiled new guidelines aimed at cutting back on incentives and expenditure on video games.
Tencent and NetEase, the two biggest gaming businesses in China, lost around $80 billion in market value as a result of the new regulations, which essentially imposed spending caps for online games, according to Josh Ye of Reuters.
As is customary in many games these days, games are no longer able to offer daily login bonuses and awards for players who spend money on them for the first time or often. This is related to several reports concerning younger Chinese gamer going beyond their purchases and possibly developing a gambling addiction.
Additionally, games aren’t going to be permitted to allow speculation and sale of virtual game items, nor will they be allowed to offer probability-based fortunate draw elements to minors.
These modifications “may eventually force publishers to fundamentally overhaul their game design and monetization strategies,” according to Morningstar analyst Ivan S.
Having said that, one of the new regulations’ proposals would force regulators to complete game approvals in less than 60 days, which would hasten the certification of games across the nation. China authorized licenses for 40 new imported games to be released domestically concurrently with this statement, which is encouraging for the gaming industry as a whole.
Furthermore, user data must now be kept on Chinese servers rather than abroad, per the demands of Chinese game publishers.
Through January 22, 2024, the administration will accept public feedback on the regulations.
