By Josh Ye
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s video games regulator on Tuesday granted publishing licences to 88 online games, including titles belonging to Tencent Holdings Ltd, NetEase Inc and miHoYo.
Shenzhen-based Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company, received at least one game licence for a mobile game named “Yuanmengzhixing”, the list published by the National Press and Public Administration showed.
NetEase, China’s second largest gaming company, also received a licence for a shooting game named “Chaofanxianfeng”. miHoYo, the famed developer behind Genshin Impact, secured one licence for a game named Honkai: Star Rail.
Unlike in most other countries, video games need approval from regulators before release in China, the world’s largest gaming market. When Beijing cracked down on the gaming industry last August, it initiated a nine-month freeze on the licence approval process.
Last month, China granted publishing licences to 44 foreign games for domestic release after nearly 18 months, effectively marking the end of China’s crackdown on the industry.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
