SoftwareSecurityChinese regulators may be having second thoughts about online gaming crackdown: Proposed rule changes have been removed from government websiteWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
SoftwareSecurityChinese regulators may be having second thoughts about online gaming crackdown: Proposed rule changes have been removed from government websiteWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Bloomberg Creative - Getty Images)
China may be walking back a series ofsweeping new restrictionson gaming that were announced in December 2023, as aReutersreport says the country’s gaming regulator has removed the proposed rule changes from the National Press and Publication Administration website entirely.
The proposed changes, which apparently appeared without warning to gaming companies, included requiring:
The extent and suddenness of the proposal hammered Chinese gaming companies like TenCent and NetEase, both of which saw an immediate, sharp drop in their share prices, and suffered a market value loss of nearly $80 billion between them.
(Image credit: National Press and Publication Administration)
The removal of the proposed changes from the National Press and Publication Administration’s website doesn’t necessarily mean they’re being dropped completely. Haitong Securities analyst Xiaoyue Hu said the removal of the page could signal that “further changes” to the proposed rules are in the works.
But Hu added that previous proposed regulatory changes typically remained on the government’s website even after the period of public consultation had changed, which is what makes this takedown notable.
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Whatever the reason for the removal or the ultimate outcome to the proposed rule changes, the money people are at least cautiously happy: The share price of both Tencent and NetEase jumped up sharply immediately after the page was taken down.
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