The Chinese government has set up a committee to review video games. The first 20 games were recently under examination. 9 were banned, 11 other games are to be modified.
Update 12.22: In the meantime, there was a list of the “20 games” that the Chinese ethics committee had reviewed. We reported on this on MeinMMO on December 11.
Among the 20 games were allegedly games like Fortnite, PUBG, WoW, Overwatch, and more. This list supposedly originated from a Chinese gaming forum and was then disseminated on reddit.
Reports prove false that China bans Fortnite and PUBG
However, this list seems to have turned out to be a fake. Although the committee tested 20 games, rejected 9, and requested changes to 11 others before they can be published. This was reported by Chinese state television.
However, the details are unknown regarding which games were involved (via Nikopartners).
According to analyst Daniel Ahmad, the committee is not reviewing games that are already published in China: Thus, games like Diablo, Overwatch, League of Legends, and others that were on this list are excluded. (via Twitter)
This has proven that reports suggesting China wants to ban Fortnite or PUBG are false for the time being.
A few hours ago, it became known that China is reopening the licensing of new games after a 9-month hiatus.
Original announcement (without the part about the 20 games):
This is how it has been all along in China: For years, the gaming market in China has been booming. Influential Chinese corporations like Tencent or NetEase made millions. Tencent grew even 7 times larger than Activision.
Games need a government license in China to be distributed. The criteria for granting these licenses are unclear. Some games have been specially adapted for the Chinese market. For example, Diablo 3 was not allowed to show bones.
Western games wanting to enter the Chinese market entered into deals with Chinese companies – because they had good relationships with the Chinese government. This guaranteed for a long time a license to earn money with video games in China.
Video games somehow existed in a gray area that was not really under the scrutiny of the all-powerful Communist Party of China.
China sees youth threatened by video games
What has changed: But since 2018, the stream has been halted. The attitude towards video games has changed in China and has become significantly more critical. Online games are accused of making the youth addicted. Furthermore, they are said to be responsible for the widespread nearsightedness among young people and children.
For several months no licenses for new games have been issued. This first affected Monster Hunter World, which even had to be withdrawn. The stock value of Tencent has since significantly dropped.
Now the government has established the “Online Games Ethics Committee” to review online games.
This information comes from the “South China Morning Post”, which obtained it from a TV news report from state-owned Chinese television. This was the first time the existence of such a committee was confirmed.
Recently, the head of GTA expressed a desire for the market to be opened, but in China, the exact opposite seems to be happening:
