Apple has confirmed to publishers that it will remove all games from the App Store in China that have not received a government approval by June 30.

Chinese mobile games revenue generated whopping revenues in Q1 2020. Natalie Stepanova, Head of Marketing & PR at analyst firm Apptica, disusses the phenomenal performance of China’s mobile game sector.

Zhu Yongxin, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), proposed a rating system for online games.

Niko Partners project that video games in China will bring in over $46.7 billion in 2024.

China’s biggest trade show for the video games industry will take place in Shanghai from July 31 to August 3.

Sony has temporarily stopped selling games in China. The company took to social network Weibo to announce indefinite suspension of PlayStation Store China. The reason for the temporary closure is a “system security upgrade.”

The Chinese authorities are tightening political censorship in video games.

Video game industry in China is famously conducive to all sorts of political controversy. Most recently, Chinese developer Seasun Games has cut off 1.5 million players in Taiwan from JX3, a MMORPG similar to World Of Warcraft.

Disco Elysium came out last year to universal acclaim. Its storytelling and customization system won four awards at The Game Awards 2019 and led many reviewers to choose the title as the game of the year, with Time listing Disco Elysium as one of the top games of the entire decade.

Launching a game in China can be tricky in more ways than you’d expect. Capcom hasn’t even fully released its Resident Evil 3 remake, but the demo has already angered patriotic Chinese gamers.

All premium games or games offering IAPs will now only be allowed onto the Chinese App Store if they have a license number obtained from the General Administration of Press and Publication of China.

In China, the publicity department of Haidian District Committee has partnered with the Communist Party’s official newspaper People’s Daily and casual games developer Ohayoo, which is owned by ByteDance.

Chinese authorities continue to tighten regulations for games. Use of English, virtual marriages and the whole genre of “imperial harem games” fell under the ban.

As China and the US ease the trade war, a number of proposed trade tariffs are getting shelved. One of them is 25% import tax on consoles, which are mainly manufactured in China.

ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has purchased AI developer LevelupAI. The developer is based in Beijing. No information is available on the price.

In 2019, only 1,570 video games were licensed by the Chinese authorities, according to Niko Partners. That’s way less than 8,500 at the peak in 2017.

The conflict between Hong Kong and China is affecting the gaming world once more. Players are taking advantage of new items added in GTA V’s Diamond Casino Heist update to look like Hong Kong protesters.

A Beijing-based mobile gaming company was fined $99,000 for publishing a game without government approval. This is the first penalty of this kind after the licensing freeze was lifted.