China’s video game regulator has approved another 15 foreign-developed titles for the local market, bringing this year’s total to 75, with domestic tech giants Tencent Holdings and NetEase securing licenses for some big games.
Tencent secured approval to release Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, one of the most popular tactical shooter games, and role-playing game Paper Mario: The Origami King for the Nintendo Switch platform in China, according to a Friday statement by the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA).
NetEase received approval for two Marvel titles: Marvel Rivals and Marvel Snap, which both feature famous Marvel Comics characters.
Some other famous titles also made the cut this month, including Final Fantasy XIV, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that is part of the hit franchise from Square Enix, and Mario Golf: Super Rush for the Switch.
This year’s approvals of foreign video games have already surpassed the 44 titles approved in 2022, when the industry was recovering from an eight-month licensing freeze. At the current pace, it could be on track to surpass last year’s 98 approvals, as Beijing tries to instil confidence in the domestic video game industry after its 2021 crackdown.
In 2020 and 2021, the NPPA approved 96 and 76 imported games, respectively.
Out of the 75 foreign titles approved this year, 11 have been for the Switch, making it the largest batch since the NPPA took the charge of licensing video games in 2019. They included three Pokémon titles – Let’s Go, Pikachu!, Let’s Go, Eevee! and New Pokémon Snap – the rhythm game Taiko no Tatsujin, and the fighting game Samurai Shodown.
Only six Switch titles were approved in 2023, and three the previous year, according to NPPA data. The Switch has been available in China since 2019, when Tencent reached a deal with Nintendo to be the console’s exclusive distributor in the country.
China’s video gaming market has been on the rise after a long halt to new video game licenses, which for foreign titles lasted 18 months until December 2022. Total sales in China’s video gaming market soared nearly 14 per cent to almost 303 billion yuan (US$41.8 billion) last year, with the number of gamers reaching a record of 668 million, according to the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association.
