China’s media regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), issued 73 gaming licenses on Tuesday, the fifth batch of approvals this year. Chinese gaming companies such as NetEase, 4399 Network, and XD (TapTap) have titles approved in this batch. This is the first time NetEase and a Tencent subsidiary have received approval for game titles since a licensing freeze was implemented in 2021. A tower-defense game named Defense of Health (our translation), developed by a Tencent subsidiary called Nanjing Wangdian Technology, also got a license. The educational title focuses on knowledge of the human body and health. NetEase’s approved title is a sports game called Allstar Streetball Party (our translation) for mobile platforms, which supports player-vs-player matches with strategies. The new licenses see approval for 69 mobile platform titles, four for PCs, and one for Sony PlayStation. [NPPA, in Chinese]
