Gaming shares soar as approvals resume
▶ China gives go-ahead to 30 imported online games
Gaming shares soared on Wednesday following the Chinese government’s move to approve 30 imported online video games, the first batch of imported online games approved in more than one year.
Tangel Culture soared by the daily 10 percent ceiling to 5.57 yuan ($0.8), while the shares of Shanghai U9 Game also rose by the daily ceiling to 4.92 yuan.
The gains followed the public notification of the approval of 30 imported online video games on the official website of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on Tuesday.
The move signals the formal restart of imported games’ approval. Such approvals were halted in February 2018, with the approval of domestic online games halted one month afterward. The approval of domestic online games resumed in December 2018.
Tencent’s Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming, which is developed by Chinese game producer Yoozoo, is among the 30 approved imported games.
A PR representative from Yoozoo told the Global Times that the approval is “favorable news” for the company, but declined to comment further.
Zhang Zhuo, chief editor of game forum a9vg.com, said that restarting imported games’ approval is definitely good news for the industry in China, as the suspension of approvals disrupted many companies’ game import plans, caused losses and hurt the confidence of many overseas companies in introducing their game products to China. “Resuming imported game approvals is a good sign. It at least allows companies to be hopeful about (game imports),” Zhang told the Global Times Wednesday.
According to Zhang, the restart has brought a batch of high-quality games to the domestic market, which can enhance the overall quality of the domestic game market.
“But I don’t think it would have too much impact on the domestic console game market, as a result of the limited number of imported games that have been approved as well as the fact that those games have been sold on overseas markets and have probably already been played by core fans in China,” Zhang said.
The purpose of introducing foreign quality games into the Chinese market is to stimulate the research and development abilities of domestic game companies, eliminate copycats and homogenization of game products, and regain users who fled into the short-video and music sectors amid the suspension, Dong Zhen, an analyst with Beijing-based market consultancy Analysys International, told the Global Times Wednesday.
Approvals of 30 games may not seem like a lot, but it should be enough for the current Chinese game market, because there’s a higher possibility of a hot product appearing. The government hopes that there will be a hot-selling game that can integrate players’ interests and values, noted Dong.
“Big data regarding Chinese gamers’ tastes collected from such a hit game would be extremely helpful for the development of domestic game companies and their ability to turn out products that meet the market needs,” Dong said.