China’s video game regulator provided publishing licenses to 44 foreign games for release here, with seven games coming from South Korea, relaxing rigid curbs even more that have affected the gaming industry for one and half years.
South Korean gaming stocks, including Netmarble Corp, NCSOFT, Krafton, Kakao Games, and Devsisters raised between 2% and more than 17% in morning trade on Thursday, just the next of Chinese authorities granting publishing licenses.
The granting of licenses to seven South Korean games is important in the context of China and South Korean relations as the former had barred the import of South Korean content ever since the two Asian countries had a dispute over the latter’s move to install a US missile defense shield. Earlier, only two South Korean games had been approved.
The games have been approved by the National Press and Publication Administration among them are “Pokémon Unite” by Nintendo and “Valorant” by Riot Games which Tencent Holdings will publish, as shown in the list of games the regulator released.
The regulator at the start came out with a list of 45 approved imported games. It deleted Yoozoo’s “Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming” on Wednesday from the list and gave no reason. However, as per a document published by the authority in September, Yoozoo already has a license.
Another list showed that the regulator had also approved 84 games on the home front in December.
The approval has been the first since China started a clampdown on the gaming industry that started in August 2021 when regulators halted the process of giving licenses to games.
In the approval process, regulators made an exception of approving domestic games in April, and the approval of foreign games marked the end of curbs on video games.
In contrast to most other nations, China, the largest gaming market in the world, requires regulatory clearance before video games may be sold.
Chinese software firms Tencent and NetEase Inc, which get a sizable portion of their revenue from publishing both home-grown and imported games, have suffered significantly as a result of the industry-wide crackdown that has lasted for more than a year.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Tencent, the largest gaming corporation in the world, effectively obtained a total of six licenses in December through various linked entities.
Along with Tencent, other game developers who obtained approval in December include NetEase, ByteDance, XD Inc., and iDreamSky.
In Hong Kong, shares of Tencent, XD Inc., and iDreamSky increased by 0.8% to 5.2%, while Nintendo of Japan increased by 0.2%.
Fewer licenses were awarded this year than in prior years. In 2021, China allowed 76 imported games, and in 2017, 456.
The founder of Tencent, Pony Ma, stated at a year-end meeting this month that the company needed to get used to Beijing’s stringent licensing requirements and that the number of new games that China will license would ultimately remain constrained.
Tencent just acquired its first commercial game license in more than a year and a half last month, which was seen at the time as a significant indicator of the industry’s move toward policy normalization.
Other imported games that have been authorized include “Don’t Starve” by Klei Entertainment and “Gwent: The Witcher Card Game” by CD Projekt.
