After nearly a year of being frozen, China’s approval process for games lurched into life once more in December, with 80 titles approved in the country before the end of December. These imported games include 67 mobile titles, which means that this particular approval is going to mean more to smartphone owners than anyone else.
Interestingly, this batch of games includes absolutely nothing from Tencent or Netease, the two largest companies in the gaming scene and common partners for larger Western companies looking to break into the market. No explanation is forthcoming; it’s entirely possible that Tencent and Netease were waiting on longer backlogs, had more changes to make for approval, or had some other innocuous reason for not being part of this particular wave. Considering the woes both companies have faced in the nearly year-long drought of approvals, however, it’s still noteworthy.
