On Wednesday, the China News Service reported that the Chinese Ministry of Culture will be increasing its monitoring of domestic online games as part of its increased oversight on the gaming market.
At least 50 mobile games have already been selected randomly for the screening as part of the ministry's "full body check." Some of the included titles are the fantasy fashion game "Miracle Nikki" and RPG game "Master Yang Yang."
The screening currently done is to ensure that the mobile games available in the market are free from prohibited content or "obscene, pornographic, pro-gambling, violent, or harmful to social values" and themes that promote prohibited activities or services. Any gaming company found violating content regulations would be fined or face cancellation of their business permits, and confiscation of their "illegally gained income."
The new measures adds to the current efforts to monitor China's $24 billion video game industry after it was discovered some of the popular games currently in the market have bloody and violent content. Last month, the fight-to-death game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" was discovered to have bloody content. Since it was discovered, NetEase updated the mobile clone of the game to make it more politically correct and repackaged it to show a training exercise for the international peacekeeping troops the players are controlling. Political slogans were also included in the updated clone.
The announcement on Wednesday was met with divided comments from netizens with some noting Tencent games were not included. Others were also against the crackdown as they see games different from reality.
