Game-Time report/On December 22, the “Online Game Management Measures” (Draft for Comments) drafted by the National Press and Publication Administration was released to the public for comments.
After the release of the consultation draft, the stock prices of Hong Kong and A-share listed game companies plummeted collectively, and further triggered the overall plummet of Hong Kong and A-share stocks that day. Yesterday, the market value loss of listed game companies alone reached hundreds of billions. Individual game companies alone The stock price fell by more than 20% on that day, which strongly affected the confidence of investors. The domestic gaming industry can be said to be experiencing a huge crisis of “total collapse”.
While investors and gamers are anxiously waiting for the latest explanation from the competent authorities, on Saturday, December 23, the China Press, Publication, Radio and Television News released a latest update through its WeChat official account, which aroused great concern and eased the pressure on the game. Industry anxiety.
Judging from the full text of the report, the Edition Office has noticed the market reaction after the release of the draft for comments yesterday and actively responded positively. It emphasized that“The draft for comments is based on ensuring and promoting the prosperity and healthy development of the online game industry.”the original text of the report is as follows:
Relevant person in charge of the National Press and Publication Administration: “Online Game Management Measures” (Draft for Comments) aims to promote the prosperity and healthy development of the industry
The relevant person in charge of the National Press and Publication Administration said that the draft for comments is based on ensuring and promoting the prosperity and healthy development of the online game industry. It clearly addresses issues such as the access of online game business units, establishes a special chapter on “Guarantees and Rewards”, and proposes a A series of incentives. At the same time, provisions are made to protect the rights and interests of minors and consumers. During the drafting process of the draft, opinions from relevant departments, industry associations, enterprises and other parties were widely listened to through various methods. The person in charge said that the public solicitation of opinions on departmental regulations is a process to listen to more opinions and improve the regulations and provisions.
The State Press and Publication Administration will carefully study the concerns and opinions raised by all parties on Articles 17, 18 and other contents of the draft, and will continue to listen to the opinions of relevant departments, enterprises, users and other parties. Based on further modifications and improvements.
Public account: China Press, Publication, Radio and TelevisionRelevant person in charge of the National Press and Publication Administration: “Online Game Management Measures” (Draft for Comments) aims to promote the prosperity and healthy development of the industry
The purpose of Articles 17 and 18 in the draft for comments is mainly to “prohibit forced battles” and “restrict excessive use of games and high consumption.”
“Article 18” in the draft for comments contains the expression “recharge limit” and covers adult users, which has become the focus of investors and game companies.
The person in charge of the Today’s Edition Office made it clear that “it will listen to the opinions of all parties and will further revise and improve the draft for comments” and highlighted the most controversial “Article 18”, which is a positive change. Whether there will be “Article 18” in the final version, or how to modify this article, is crucial to the gaming industry. Game-Time believes that there is reason to believe that “expected risks will be effectively controlled”, and everyone can give some confidence to the competent authorities.
How to adjust “Article 18”, we must first fully understand the chain reaction this article will have and the impact it will have on the domestic game market. Game-Time hopes to explain it more clearly today.
According to the understanding of most people yesterday, if users set a “consumption limit” when playing games, this means that the revenue scale, profits, and corporate profit margins of a large number of domestic game products may decline in the future, which will in turn lead to the capital market’s negative impact on the domestic game industry. , listed game companies conduct “value revaluation”, and listed game companies may experience drastic stock price fluctuations in the short term.
Under the expectation of “limited user consumption”, it will inevitably affect domestic game companies’ future financing, new project establishment, product design, business model and other aspects. It will ultimately change the future development model of China’s game industry and is related to the above. The job of millions of game practitioners.
In addition, the “passive interest restructuring” in the upstream and downstream of the industry chain will intensify corporate conflicts within the game industry, and adjustments to the business models of game products may also lead to new conflicts between game users and game manufacturers. Considering that the game industry has a close relationship with animation, cultural and creative industries, Technology industries such as consumer electronics, semiconductors, AI, and cloud computing are highly interconnected, and it is difficult to predict how changes in the domestic gaming industry will affect related industries.
Game-Time wrote yesterday that the final version of the “Online Game Management Measures” needs to extensively solicit opinions from all parties and fully consider the actual development status of China’s game industry and the actual consumption habits of users, including ensuring the rights of the majority of game companies to develop legitimately. , should be the most important and basic requirement.
In addition, Game-Time also believes that the game industry, as a unique industry that “combines culture and creativity with technology”, needs a set of regulatory methods that match the game industry and fully consider the characteristics of the creation of cultural and creative products. However, the current regulations and guidance appear to be inconsistent with the outside world. There are signs of “moving closer to the food and drug supervision method”. There is a lot of administrative intervention in all aspects of products, and game companies face some problems that they cannot solve in their daily operations. This is not consistent with the situation of game products, the way of creating works, and the needs of users. Consistent. Therefore, the formulation of new industry regulations is both a major challenge and an opportunity for reform. It requires more market and user research. Game companies and the public also hope to fully express their opinions during the process.
After yesterday’s storm, today’s positive response from the Board of Directors can be said to be a good start. The competent authorities have also expressed a positive attitude of frankly accepting opinions and suggestions from all parties. However, it will take time to form a new consensus from all walks of life. During this period, investors and Practitioners need to be patient.
The current time for collecting opinions on the consultation draft ends on January 22, 2024. Industry practitioners, investors and netizens still have time to put forward their views and opinions to the competent authorities, so please hurry up.
