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China may clamp down on politically sensitive content in popular video games
- Recent controversies could prompt the Cyberspace Administration of China to scrutinise the video game sector, analysts say
- China is the industry’s biggest market, with more than 720 million gamers across mobile, desktop personal computer and console hardware
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Chinese authorities may be spurred to clamp down on video games which can be used by players as platforms for politically sensitive content, following incidents involving popular titles from Nintendo and Seasun Games.
“Regulations on gaming are bound to be more strict and more detailed,” said Ding Daoshi, director of research at internet consultancy Sootoo in Beijing, based on recent controversy over content posted by players on Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Seasun’s JX3.
Released last month, the new Nintendo title – a social simulation game set on a deserted tropical island – vanished earlier this month from online retailers and game live-streaming platforms in China, including Twitch-like sites DouYu and Huya.
Players in mainland China blamed that disappearance on Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who had posted on Twitter that he plays the game and that it has served as an online gathering place for their movement.
Seasun, meanwhile, halted earlier this month the availability in Taiwan of JX3 – a martial arts-focused massive multiplayer online role-playing game – in a dispute with local partner Wanin International. Their conflict stemmed from the partner’s refusal to censor players’ in-game chats, which referred to the coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus”. The term, which references the city in central mainland China where the outbreak was first reported, is considered a slur by the Chinese government.
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