After a nine-month hiatus, China is back to approve new games. The hiatus marked the end of 14,000 Chinese game studios.
Chinese culture censors have started approving new games for the domestic market again. Games need that approval before they can be released in China. Bloomberg, among others, reports that the country approved 45 games on Monday.
That is the first time in nine months that new games are allowed to be published. The long ban would have meant the end of some 14,000 game companies that closed their doors since July last year. It’s already the second long break on new games in China. In 2018, there was a 10-month period in which no new games were approved.
The ban fits in with steps taken by the Chinese government to regulate games more strictly, especially for minors. Among other things, the country wants them only to be able to game for 1 hour a day (2 hours on weekends), and the games themselves must therefore have all kinds of systems, such as facial recognition, on board to enforce this.
