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Video gaming
TechPolicy

Tencent and NetEase absent from 67 new video game approvals in China, as ByteDance and Bilibili emerge as big winners

  • China’s two largest gaming companies have not been granted licences for new video game titles in a year, even as approvals resume one-month cadence
  • TikTok owner ByteDance, which has been retreating in gaming in recent months, and video streaming platform Bilibili received approval for new titles

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People play computer games at an internet cafe in Beijing on September 10, 2021. In the third batch of new game approvals since the end of an eight-month licensing freeze, industry giants Tencent and NetEase were once again omitted while rivals ByteDance and Bilibili made the cut. Photo: AFP
Ann Cao

China’s publication regulator granted licences to 67 video games on Tuesday in its third and biggest approval of new titles for smartphones, personal computers and consoles in mainland China since the end of an eight-month hiatus.

Tencent Holdings and NetEase, the two technology giants that dominate China’s US$49 billion video gaming market, were once again excluded from the list, continuing a year-long drought, according to the list released on Tuesday by the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), China’s top watchdog for video games and other online media.

Tencent’s shares have slumped 26.8 per cent in Hong Kong since the end of last July, when the last list was released before a licensing freeze that only ended in April. NetEase’s shares have fallen 10.7 per cent in the same period.

The big winners were TikTok owner ByteDance and video streaming giant Bilibili, the first two Big Tech companies in China to be granted game approvals since the resumption of licenses.

The list is a slight uptick in approvals from last month, when the agency approved 60 new titles for sale in China, marking a slow recovery for China’s game developers. In April, the list included just 45 titles.

The freeze on new licenses last year accompanied by new gaming restrictions on minors resulted in an upheaval in the gaming market. Thousands of small developers shuttered and tech giants have seen revenue growth fall.
ByteDance, which once sought to take on Tencent in gaming, has since been forced to scale back its ambitions. The social media giant has disbanded Shanghai-based 101 Studio, which it acquired just three years ago, cutting about half of its 300 staffers, Bloomberg reported last month.

However, the new list offers some good news for the company on the gaming front. ByteDance, which runs its gaming business under the in-house brand Nuverse, won a licence for the mobile title Crystal of Atlan.

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