China issues rules to curb gaming spend

The Star

Chinese regulators announced on Friday (Dec 22) a wide range of rules aimed at curbing spending and rewards that encourage video games, dealing a blow to the world's biggest games market, which returned to growth this year.   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 China has made strict new rules for its multi-billion dollar gaming industry.

00:06 Regulators want to curb spending and rewards that encourage video games.

00:11 Online games will now effectively have spending limits and face bans from giving rewards to

00:16 players if they log in every day.

00:20 Rewards also can't be given to anyone who spends on the game for the first time or if

00:24 they spend several times on the game consecutively.

00:27 The decision spooked investors and dealt a blow to the world's biggest games market,

00:32 which returned to growth this year.

00:35 Shares in gaming giant Tencent were down as much as 16% Friday, while its closest rival

00:41 NetEase was down by a quarter.

00:44 Beijing has taken a tough line on video games over the years.

00:47 It set strict playtime limits for players younger than 18 two years ago.

00:52 It also suspended the approval of new video games for about eight months, citing gaming

00:57 addiction concerns.

00:58 Last year was China's gaming industry's most difficult year on record as total revenue

01:03 shrank for the first time.

01:06 The crackdown formally ended in 2022 as new game approvals resumed.

01:11 China's video game market returned to growth this year as domestic revenue rose 13% to

01:16 $42.6 billion according to industry data.

01:20 -

01:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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