China’s nine-month freeze on computer game industry licenses is over following the approval of 45 new titles earlier this month, and gaming stocks have climbed.
But the country’s computer game industry sector faces a difficult road to recovery as Beijing continues its sweeping crackdown on gaming, industry insiders and experts say.
Measures rolled out by Chinese authorities since last year include time limits on online gaming for underage gamers to counter addiction and rigid real-name verification rules banning adults from making anonymous in-game purchases.
The rules have resulted in fewer young gamers and put off enough adults that “games lose money from in-game purchases and rely more on ad revenue,” according to Francesca Yu, marketing manager at AppInChina, a Beijing-based software publisher that helps firms publish and promote mobile apps and games.
Another major hurdle, according to Yu, is “fierce” competition in China’s gaming sector. With juggernauts like Tencent and NetEase controlling well over half of the market, smaller and independent developers are left fighting for the remaining scraps. There were about 300,000 game companies with capital of less than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in China last year, according to corporate database Tianyancha.
