Tencent, NetEase among Chinese gaming giants unveiling titles that play up patriotism
- Under President Xi Jinping, China has pushed to cleanse online content, from video streaming to games, to bolster Communist Party values
Chinese gaming companies, including giants Tencent and NetEase, unveiled new titles at an industry meet that show off socialist values and patriotic themes amid stricter state censorship and a push to back Communist Party propaganda.
The games, introduced at China’s largest gaming convention that ended on Monday, point to the industry’s rapidly changing landscape after state suspension of fresh approvals last year against a backdrop of growing criticism of addiction among younger players and violent content.
Titles showcased at China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, known as ChinaJoy, ranged from ones that promoted domestic culture to others that recounted the country’s history, such as Shengqu Games’ “Codename: South China Sea”, which allows users to run a coastal town set in the Ming Dynasty.
Tencent said it was collaborating with state newspaper People’s Daily to roll out a new game, “Homeland Dream”, and with the propaganda department of the Communist Party’s Guangdong arm on a title called “Story of my Home”.
Players of “Homeland Dream”, for example, will be tasked to develop a city that will need to execute policies like poverty alleviation and tax reduction, which are key goals of Beijing.
“This year is the 70th anniversary of the founding of new China, to that end Tencent has done much pre-planning and made investments to the theme of ‘me and my motherland’ … to create products reflective of the current era,” Steven Ma, Tencent’s senior vice-president, said on the sidelines of the conference.