China bans all video streaming of unapproved games

Several months after exerting more control over what games Chinese gamers are allowed to play, Chinese authorities are now telling them what games they’re allowed to watch.

On Monday, China’s Ministry of Culture announced further regulations on the online live streaming industry. Among them: a stipulation that games not approved by the Ministry of Culture may not be streamed.

This new regulation is likely to further damage China’s indie gaming industry, which was already hurting from the new censorship rules laid out by SAPPRFT this summer. It can be tough for indie games to get official approval – the process is time-consuming, expensive, and difficult – and now not-yet-approved games will not be able to market themselves via online streaming.

Previously, Chinese indie games were able to build audiences in China even without government approval by publishing on foreign game platforms like Steam (which is still unblocked in China). Then, they could market the game domestically through live streams, as popular Chinese streamers try out their games and introduce them to the broader gaming audience. Successful Chinese indie games like Lost Castle have gone this route, building a domestic audience organically in large part through streams.

The rule will damage foreign and domestic indie games

This new regulation slams that door shut, leaving indie developers whose games aren’t approved with no real recourse except to forget about China and target foreign markets. Now, only approved games can be streamed. For some Chinese indie games like Lost Castle, which contains English-language elements, altars, and other content the government finds objectionable, approval is impossible. But even if a game’s content can pass the government’s strict rules, navigating the approval process is expensive and difficult, and can seriously bog down the process of marketing and releasing a game.

This new rule will also damage foreign indie games, which have been making inroads in China in recent years. Many of these games are downloadable and playable in China despite not being officially approved because they’re available on the somehow-still-unblocked Steam platform. But if streamers can’t play and spread awareness of these games, it will be very difficult for them to grow in China.

China is a massive market for live-streaming video games, with several platforms like Douyu and Panda.tv boasting audiences well into the tens of millions. Among the post-90s generation in particular, watching game streams has become one of the primary ways that gamers discover new games they might want to play.

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from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/china-bans-streaming-unapproved-games
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