Last December, the National Press and Publications Administration of China (NPPA) published draft rules restricting the monetization of free-to-play games. The network noticed that a month later the project disappeared from the regulator's website — when trying to access the page with it, error 404 occurs.
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The draft with the new rules suggested that companies would have to abandon a number of practices that encourage them to spend more time playing games and spend more money. For example, developers wanted to prohibit giving out rewards for daily entry into the game. In addition, the NPPA intended to oblige companies to keep game servers inside China.
The disappearance of the draft rules does not mean that the Chinese authorities have decided to abandon the introduction of new restrictions. Perhaps the NPPA is simply making changes to the document — until January 22, the agency collected the opinions of market participants. As noted by journalists of the Chinese edition of the South China Morning Post, the regulator rarely refuses to impose additional bans.
The NPPA did not comment to the media on the situation with the draft rules.
After the document disappeared from the regulator's website, shares of leading Chinese gaming companies rose in price. Reuters noted that NetEase's share price increased by 7%, while Tencent's share price increased by 6%. Recall that immediately after the publication of the draft rules, gaming companies from China fell in total by $ 80 billion.