The Chinese government is introducing a significant crackdown on gaming for minors as state media has reported that children will only be allowed to play games for three hours a week on most weeks; online gaming specifically will be allowed only between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays. The new rules further mandate that all online games be linked to a state-run anti-addiction program, requires online gamers use their real names, and will empower regulators to increase checks over how gaming firms carry out restrictions on things like playing time and in-game purchases. Regulators will also reportedly work with parents and schools to combat a perceived addition to online gaming among China’s youth.
In addition to these new restrictions on play time, President Xi Jinping indicated during a committee meeting that there would be additional anti-monopoly policies meant to curtail the “disorderly expansion” of large tech and improve China’s economy.
Readers will recall that China’s tamping down of online gaming, especially for minors, has been an increasing focus of the country’s government, which in turn has had knock-on effects to Chinese gaming publishers. In the beginning of August, Tencent began imposing restrictions for minors on its games after state media referred to online games as “spiritual opium,” while that same article had a splash damage effect on Krafton’s IPO offering.
The current restrictions instituted by China have already begun to take their toll on the stocks of companies like Netease and Tencent, the latter of which saw its stock price tumble as much as 9.3% in pre-market trading in New York while Prosus NV, Tencent’s biggest shareholder, saw prices fall in Europe.
Further reading:
• China’s National Radio and Television Administration bans access to livestreams of unapproved games
• Tencent to cut off Chinese gamers accessing unapproved foreign titles through an internet speed booster
• MMO Business Roundup: China’s freeze, ABK’s new diversity officer, and Sony and Epic’s metaverse
• China’s continued freeze on new gaming approvals sees 14,000 gaming firms in the country shut down
• Steam’s global version appears to have been blocked in China
• Fortnite is closing down in China on November 15
• MMO Business Roundup: China’s crackdown, the COVID bubble, MY.GAMES hires, and the Shatterline leak
• China adds new rules against games with ‘effeminate males’ and ‘blurred moral boundaries’
• Regulators in China and the UK turn their eyes toward streaming, gaming currency
• Tencent, Netease hit with stock losses amid China’s gaming industry clampdown
• China’s new kid gaming time regulations are already causing industry trainwrecks
• China now limits minors’ gaming time to three hours a week, indicates anti-monopoly policies are forthcoming
• Krafton’s IPO launch didn’t go to plan thanks to China and Tencent
• Tencent reacts to Chinese state media calling online games ‘spiritual opium’ by adding new restrictions
• China’s video game regulators introduce a three-tier age rating system for games
• MMO Business Roundup: Tencent facial recognition, Chinese gaming regulation, anti-cheat, and hackers
• China is cracking down on online games and streaming even more with ‘Healthy China 2030’
• China is really adding that youth gaming curfew and block on sex and gore in games
• Lawful Neutral: What’s China really worth to the Western gaming industry?
• Mark Kern didn’t just quit WoW Classic: He accused his old Firefall studio of Chinese corruption
• Newly proposed Chinese gaming regulations target romantic plotlines and sexual content
• Tencent gives up on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds being approved in China
• China reveals new regulatory system for online video games after more than a year of confusion
• MMO Business Roundup: Prince Harry vs Fortnite, China’s big thaw, Gamigo’s new acquisition, and industry transparency
• China puts a freeze on new game approval (again)
• China is approving games again, but none of them is from Tencent or Netease
• China’s Online Games Ethics Committee lifts year-long ‘freeze’ on game licenses but bars multiple games
• Tencent is pulling back its marketing budget in response to China’s ongoing game freeze
• Tencent is expanding draconian ‘healthy gaming’ child blocks across all of its titles
• Tencent is working on locking kids out of Chinese games using facial recognition tech
• Here’s what’s going on with China’s video game approval process in simple terms
• Tencent’s market value dropped by $20B following new Chinese gaming regulation plans
• The World Health Organization advances its ‘gaming disorder’ classification in spite of heavy criticism
• Nexon is heavily affected by China’s new game import laws
• Pokemon Go: Increasing physical activity in the US, blockaded in China
• China bans streaming games not approved by the Ministry of Culture
