More than 140,000 Chinese Gaming Firms Closed in 2021 | No Licenses for New Games Issued

Urian B., Tech Times 02 January 2022, 08:01 pm

Over 140,000 Chinese gaming firms closed down in 2021 as the government has not been issuing licenses for any new games. As a result, many companies are now shutting down due to these limitations and thus the gaming market in China has been getting smaller and smaller.

Gaming Companies Put at Halt in China

As per the report by the South China Morning Post, the National Press and Publication Administration or NPPA has yet to approve new games for release ever since the end of July 2021. As a result, both big and small gaming companies have not yet been able to introduce brand new titles for a total of six months.

Other larger companies, however, have been able to offset any experienced financial changes due to the lack of game releases by laying off employees, according to the report.

Smaller companies, in contrast, have not been doing too well compared to their bigger counterparts.

140,000 Chinese Firms Shut Down

The state-run Securities Daily have reportedly noted that a 140,000 firms have decided to shut down. The South China Morning Post likewise notes that the NPPA has not provided an official explanation regarding the latest suspension.

The NPPA has also not provided hints on when the new video game approvals will resume at a later date.

It previously has been able to approve about 80 to 100 new titles for release every month. Per the story by PCMag, the ad hoc moratorium regarding new releases follows the introduction of gaming regulations that are seen to be stricter.

Facial Recognition Used to Stop Kids from Playing at Night

Tencent, one of the companies, has started using facial recognition in July 2021 in order to stop kids from playing their games at night. The NPPA noted in August that minors could no longer play online games from Monday all the way to Thursday.

Other much similar restrictions, however, have been introduced for some other services as well. In addition, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has also decided to start limiting younger people to just a total of 40 minutes of usage every day ever since September 2021.

Tencent Plans to Expand in Singapore

As per SCMP, the Shenzhen-based Tencent, which already runs the world's largest video gaming business based on revenue as well as the super app known as WeChat, is said to be planning to open a brand new video game development studio in Singapore. This upcoming video game development studio in Singapore will be under subsidiary TiMi Studio Group.

TiMi is the developer behind two of Tencent's largest mobile gaming hits, "Honour of Kings" as well as the crowd favorite first person shooter game "Call of Duty: Mobile."

The upcoming Singapore studio will become TiMi's fourth overseas developer facility after those in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Montereal.

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Written by Urian B.