Chinese regulators are putting a halt to all new online video game approvals after a meeting with Tencent Holdings and NetEase. This is part of China's push to stop gaming addiction among young players.
The Xi Jinping administration's intent is to curb video game consumption among young Chinese people. It called industry executives to a meeting yesterday where they told them that their "solitary focus" on profit must cease and that all approvals for online games would be frozen until further notice.
The stock quickly dropped as those within the industry fear that this is just the beginning. The reason for freezing game approvals is because the Chinese government wants to find a way to lower the number of ti♏tles launched, so it is unclear when the suspension will be lifted.
At the end of August, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:new limitations were put in place that meant minors could only play three hours per week - one hour on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The only exception to the rule is holidays. However, these new restrictions quickly caused 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:servers to crash due to the surge of young players logging in all at once, while many found ways to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:bypass the limitations altogether.
The restrictions limit the agency of minors by constricting how much they can game, but they also extend to belittling LGBTQ+ people. This is because the Chinese government stated that games with the "wrong set of values" such as worshipping mone♋y or featuring "gay love" have to be boycotted.
As such, the Chinese gaming scene - which comprises hits such as miHoYo's Genshin Impact - is being pushed to avoid featuring queer characters, undertones, and messages. There are a lot of unspoken ramifications that stem from the limitations put in place, but many fear that the Chinese government is just beginning to ramp up in its push against gaming.
"The reported suspension of new title approvals suggests an expansion of China's latest gaming crackdown," . "What looked like paternalistic controls on minors' gaming activity may potentially morph into broader restrictions on content and monetization models."