{"id":1511,"date":"2024-01-23T15:32:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T15:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/china-appears-to-u-turn-on-strict-gaming-rules-proposals\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T15:32:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T15:32:55","slug":"china-appears-to-u-turn-on-strict-gaming-rules-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/china-appears-to-u-turn-on-strict-gaming-rules-proposals\/","title":{"rendered":"China appears to U-turn on strict gaming rules proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"

China appears to U-turn on strict gaming rules proposals<\/p>\n

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By Imran Rahman-Jones<\/div>\n
BBC News<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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China has reportedly backtracked on introducing strict rules on video gaming after draft legislation was removed from the regulator’s website.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) had proposed rules aimed at limiting the amount of money and time people spent on gaming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, the draft of the rules had gone from the NPPA website as of Tuesday morning, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The consultation period for the rules had expired on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They would have limited in-game purchases and discouraged “obsessive” gaming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Incentives such as daily log-in rewards would have come under fire, while the introduction of a pop-up warning players of “irrational” behaviour was proposed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Share prices of Chinese gaming firms – including the world’s biggest gaming company Tencent Holdings and its rival NetEase – jumped after the apparent U-turn on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They had plummeted after the rules were first proposed in December, wiping nearly $80bn (\u00a363bn) off the value of the two companies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At the time, analysts said the worst impact would be on smaller or medium-sized developers rather than the gaming giants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A few days later, the NPPA appeared to soften its stance on some of the proposals after the market responded badly to the news, and share prices recovered somewhat after that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Although that move reassured the industry to an extent, there is still a lot of uncertainty, says Ivan Su, senior analyst at Morningstar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I think this type of sentiment will probably last for quite some time, unless we get a very drastic turnaround in government rhetoric, or unless we get some super supportive policies,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We don’t know if it’s going to happen in a week, in a couple months, or in a couple of years… that’s the main uncertainty.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, Mr Su thinks that if any new legislation comes, it will be “toned down to a degree that it will have a negligible impact to gaming companies.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But the uncertainty may cause future shifts in the Chinese gaming industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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China’s largest crackdown on gamers came in 2021 when children were banned from playing for more than an hour on certain days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That same year, the government stopped gaming licences from being granted for eight months. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As a result, says Mr Su, “a lot of Chinese developers have started shifting their development pipeline toward overseas games”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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NetEase and Tencent acquired or invested in companies in the likes of France, Japan and the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Given regulatory uncertainty in China at the moment, the bigger developers may look again at expanding overseas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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