69 New Chinese Games Receive Regulatory Approval

On August 1, China’s National Press and Publication Administration released a list of 69 new games that have been formally approved in August for domestic release.

Many major game companies obtained approval for publishing and operations, including YOOZOO Games, CMGE Technology, Shenzhen Zqgame, and iDreamSky, although Tencent and NetEase were not among them.

The new list comprises 64 mobile games, two Switch games, two client games, and one web game. The approved titles include Switch game “My Time at Portia” produced by Zqgame, mobile game “Super Meow Star Project” by G-bits, and mobile game “Chuanqi Baye” operated by Hainan Shangxuan and produced by 37Games.

It is worth noting that TikTok owner ByteDance won approval for game publishing and operations this time for its mobile game “Legion Battle,” operated by Hainan Wudong Technology Co., Ltd.

This is the fourth time this year that Chinese approval for game publishing and operations was issued. Previously, the country’s National Press and Publication Administration released 45 game approvals on April 11, 60 on June 7, and 67 on July 12. Up to now, a total of 241 approvals have been issued in 2022.

Compared with April to July, the issuance date of this approval was earlier than usual. Not long ago, on July 21, the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services of the Ministry of Commerce issued a document in which it was mentioned that it would carry out a pilot reform to optimize the approval process, expand the online game audit pilot, and innovate the way of supervision after the event. The document’s intention to promote the pilot work of online game audit is also generally considered by the industry as a favorable one to speed up the speed of online game auditing.

SEE ALSO: 23 Chinese Mobile Games Among US Top 100 Bestsellers in H1 2022

However, the Chinese game market is facing a bottleneck in development. According to a report released by the Game Industry Committee of China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market in the first half of 2022 was 147.789 billion yuan ($21.83 billion), down 1.80% year-on-year, marking the first year-on-year decline in recent years. This was caused by a decrease in user income during the resurgent pandemic, a decrease in willingness to consume and a continuous increase in the operating costs of game enterprises. The scale of game users also dropped by 0.13% year-on-year.