The suspension may extend by up to four to six months more.Īll games need to get a license to be published in China. The Chinese government has suspended the approval of licenses for new games since March 2018. According to Niko Partners, South Korean gaming companies enjoy 14 percent of the market share in China’s gaming industry and American developers claim just five percent of the industry’s revenue. In comparison, foreign companies play a minor role, accounting for only 20 percent of revenues from China’s gaming market.

The second-largest gaming company in China is NetEase, which has 13.6 percent of the market share for PC games and 14.8 percent of the revenues from the mobile game market. Tencent, the largest gaming company in China, occupies more than a half the country’s market share. In 2017, the governing body approved 9,800 new games and the number of games published by domestic companies reached 9,310. Revenues from China’s mobile gaming market reached 116.1 billion yuan (US$16.9 billion) in 2017, while the PC gaming segment’s revenue accounted for 64.9 billion yuan (US$9.4 billion). Mobile games and PC games are the primary type of products in China’s gaming market, and account for 66 percent and 28.5 percent of revenues, respectively. As a leading market, China accounted for 26.1 percent of global revenues in the first half of 2018.Īccording to Newzoo, there are 850 million netizens and 783 million smartphone users in China. Local players dominate China’s massive gaming industryĬhina’s gaming industry enjoyed a tenfold increase in revenue between 20, rising from 18.6 billion yuan (US$2704.1 million) to 203.6 billion yuan (US$29.6 billion). Given these recent regulatory developments, we discuss the prospects for foreign investors in China’s gaming industry. Since then, China has halted licensing new games and the industry has entered a period of uncertainty. On March 28, the body licensing games in China was shifted from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and the Ministry of Culture to the Central Propaganda Department. However, new gaming regulations have upset the status quo.

In 2017, the industry was worth 203.6 billion yuan (US$29.6 billion).

( For information on the latest regulations on curfew for minors and the real-name registration system, see our article here.)Ĭhina is the world’s largest gaming market, with 583 million active gamers. SeptemPosted by China Briefing Written by

Curfew laws on online gaming