Permission to publish or update a mobile game in China will cost from $2000.
At the beginning of this month, it became known that from July 1, 2016, all mobile games published or updated in China will have to receive a preliminary permission for publication from the State Administration of the People’s Republic of China for Press, Publishing, Broadcasting, Cinematography and Television (SAPPRFT).
There will be no exceptions for either internal or external commands.
The other day it became known that obtaining a permit, if entrusted to a third-party company, will cost from $ 2,000 to $5,000 (depending on the game to be considered).
On the one hand, as Tech in Asia notes on its pages, this will hit independent developers very hard, for whom such sums are very significant. On the other hand, it seems to us that it is a very effective tool against pirates, which are still one of the main problems in the Chinese market.
If the SAPPRFT initiative works effectively, it can open doors for Western companies, since they will no longer compete with a sea of copies and clones of their own projects, but with a regulated ecosystem.
However, it is still not clear which stores SAPPRFT will regulate.