China Bans Livestreams Of "Unauthorised" Games
China's wave of cracking on video games that don't adhere to government norms continues. After halting all approvals for video game licenses for almost nine months, the government has now mandated that livestreams of all "unauthorized" games are now banned. This is just the latest in a series of measures that the government has been implementing over the past few years.
According to a report by Reuters, China's National Radio and Television Administration issued a notice saying, "For a period of time, issues such as chaotic online livestreaming and teenage addiction to games have raised widespread concerns in society and effective measures need to be taken urgently."
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As per industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, while games could not be released in China without a license, they could be livestreamed via platforms like Huya and Bilibili. This would build up hype and encourage players to find alternative means to play the game. However, without streaming, players will receive no information about games that are unlicensed.
He used Elden Ring as an example, saying it "was a hit on Chinese game live streaming platforms reaching 17.1m cumulative daily average viewers in its first week. But it's not approved for sale there (People still find ways to buy it ofc). If the below is fully enforced, Elden Ring couldn't be streamed at all."
The Chinese government recently put into place another means by which it could control what games its citizens can have access to. Tencent shut down its services that enabled Chinese players to get access to foreign games. The company put out apps that would allow foreign games to run at decent speeds despite the country's firewall.
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