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Shares of Chinese online game companies trade higher in Hong Kong, with IGG gaining 4.4%, NetEase and Tencent up about 2%, Bilibili trading more than 1% higher.
China’s media regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), issued 69 gaming licenses on Monday, the fourth batch of monthly approval this year. The licenses approve 64 titles for mobile platforms, two for PCs, two for Nintendo Switch, and one for browsers.
Leading Chinese gaming companies such as NetEase and Tencent are absent from the approved list. That marks 14 months since Tencent last had a new game approved and 13 months for Netease
The latest batch of approval comes only 19 days after the previous batch and compared to 45 titles, 60 titles and 67 titles in the previous three batches.
TF Securities said in a note that the regulator’s issuance of game licenses is expected to normalize and the marginal improvement of the regulatory environment will accelerate the progress of game developers’ new releases and boost their earnings in the short term and in the medium term, help recover the confidence in the sector.
Zhongyuan Securities said in a note that the normalization of the game license granting will help ease market concerns and as the amount of new game releases increases, market sentiment will likely see some recovery.
