20,000 iOS games could be removed in China, report says

An AppInChina report says a third of China’s paid games on the iOS App Store won’t have a license before a key deadline

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Hit mobile games like Tencent’s Game for Peace already have licenses, but indie developers are likely to be affected. (Picture: Tencent)

Published: 5:00am, 11 Mar 2020Updated: 5:17am, 11 Mar 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Apple’s new rules for game developers in China could see tens of thousands of games removed from the iOS App Store, according to a new report.

Apple recently started requiring game developers to submit game licenses for titles in the App Store in China, where games have to be approved by a state authority. With the June 30 deadline only three months away, app intelligence firm AppInChina expects more than one third of paid games to be removed.

Citing government data, AppInChina said that China has issued a total of 43,104 game licenses. Even if all of these licenses were issued to mobile games, that would leave more than 21,500 App Store titles without a license, as data compiled by Qimai Data shows that there were 64,667 paid games on the App Store in China as of March 6.

While Chinese iOS users could lose access to thousands of games, the biggest titles like local versions of Tencent hits Arena of Valor and PUBG Mobile are already covered.

“Most of those high-grossing games already have a game license, so are unlikely to be affected by this change,” AppInChina CEO Rich Bishop told us.

Bishop said the gaming industry is top-heavy, meaning that a large share of the revenue is being generated by a relatively small number of blockbuster games. But he stressed that the license check could be a death sentence for certain medium- and small-scale mobile games, many of which generate revenue in China without a local partner.