China’s online gaming regulator grants approval to 27 new video games, including Tencent and NetEase titles

China’s online gaming regulator on Monday granted licenses to 27 overseas games in March, including titles to be published by Tencent Holdings, NetEase and Bilibili.

Among the imported online games approved by the National Press and Publication Administration is at least one from Tencent, a game called Merge Mansion, according to a list released Monday by the regulator. NetEase got approval for at least one mobile game called Audition: Everybody Party, while Bilibili got a license for a game called Shanyao! Youjunshaonu.

It is the second batch of foreign online games to receive publishing licenses in China recently, just three months after the regulator approved the first batch in December. China’s crackdown on online gambling had halted the approval process for foreign video games for 18 months between 2021 and 2022.

The approval of imported games last December marked the end of the Chinese crackdown on the video game industry that began in August 2021 when regulators suspended the game approval process. Regulators resumed issuing gaming licenses to local games in April 2022.

XD Inc has received licenses for two mobile games named Gorogoa and Wizard of Legend respectively. Other notable titles approved by China through this batch include a mobile game called Fairy Tale: Fighting and a console game called Yo-kai Watch 4.

Last month, it was reported that Tencent was in talks with Meta Platforms to distribute its Meta Quest line of virtual reality headsets in China.

Tencent, the world’s largest video game publisher, had ambitious plans to create both virtual reality software and hardware in an “extended reality” XR unit it launched in June last year. amid growing worldwide interest in the metaverse concept of a virtual world.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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