Chinese Moratorium On Games Continues As 14,000 Video Game-Related Companies Shut Down
Since July 2021, the Chinese National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) has imposed a moratorium on the release of games in the country as part of its fight against what they regard as spiritual opium that threatens to destroy a generation of their citizens. These restrictions have had a significant effect on Chinese video game companies, including Tencent, and have resulted in as much as $60 billion in losses for the media giant.
Unfortunately, it looks like those restrictions will remain in place for 2022 and smaller studios who have less financial freedom then their bigger counterparts have begun throwing in the towel. According to the South China Moring Post, around 14,000 video-game related companies, including development studios, publishing companies, and advertising and marketing firms have gone out of business because of the freeze.
Other companies have been forced to lay off employees to account for lost profit while bigger ones, like Tencent and NetEase, have decided to expand overseas in an effort to recover their losses. Tencent in particular has been swallowing up video game development studio across the globe. Just last year, the company has acquired a total of seven studios, namely: Don’t Starve’s Klei Entertainment, Spec-Ops: The Line’s Yager Development, Hood: Outlaws & Legends’ Sumo Digital, Battlerite’s Stunlock Studios, Ninjala’s Wake Up Interactive, Warhammer: Vermintide’s Fatshark Games, and Back 4 Blood’s Turtle Rock Studios.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to crack down on gaming, limiting the playtime of minors to just 3 hours a day and imposing anti-monopoly measures as well as new standards for games that will be released in the country. These standards ban effeminate characters, games with so-called “blurred moral boundaries,” and games that look like those made in Japan.
The NPPA has yet to comment on the issue or give a timeline as to when they will lift the moratorium.
