BANGKOK (AP) — China’s Press and Publication Administration has approved 105 new online games and said it fully supports the industry after proposed restrictions last week led to massive losses for investors in major game makers.
The National Press and Publication Administration released a statement on its social media account WeChat on Monday saying the approvals by the Game Working Committee of the China Music and Digital Association were “positive signals that promote prosperity and healthy development.” support the online gaming industry”.
The approved games included Tencent’s “Counter War: Future” and NetEase’s “Firefly Assault.”
Draft guidelines restricting online gambling sent share prices of video game makers such as Tencent and Netease crashing on Friday, leading to tens of billions of dollars in losses and dragging down Chinese benchmarks.
The administration’s guidelines said online games were prohibited from offering incentives for daily logins or purchases. Other restrictions include limiting charging capacity for users and issuing warnings for “irrational consumer behavior.”
On Friday, Nasdaq-traded shares of Netease fell 16.1%, while Hong Kong-traded shares fell 25%. Tencent closed 12% lower. Huya Inc., a smaller online games maker, fell 10.7% on the New York Stock Exchange. Overall, the companies lost tens of billions of dollars in market value.
Hong Kong’s market was closed on Monday for the Christmas holiday. Stock prices in Shanghai remained unchanged.
The Press and Publication Administration said 1,075 game version numbers were issued in 2023, of which 977 were domestically produced and 98 were imported.
It also cited a “China Game Industry Report 2023” that said the domestic online gaming market’s revenue exceeded 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) in 2023 and the number of game players reached 668 million.
“The Game Working Committee hopes that member units will seize this opportunity to bring more high-quality products to the market, promote the high-quality development of the online game industry, and promote cultural prosperity and development and build a culturally strong country to contribute,” it said.
China has taken various measures against the online gaming sector in recent years.
In 2021, regulators limited the amount of time children can spend playing games to just three hours per week, expressing concern about video game addiction. Approvals of new video games were paused for about eight months but resumed in April 2022 as a broader crackdown on the entire tech industry was eased.