China gaming: Beijing approves Dungeon & Fighter Mobile among imported titles, giving Tencent a boost

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In a surprise move, China’s gaming regulator approved a new batch of foreign video games on Friday, including hit title Dungeon & Fighter (DnF) Mobile to be operated in China by Tencent Holdings, as Beijing seeks to reassure the stock market after scrapping a controversial gaming regulation.

The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the agency in charge of licensing video games in China, published a list of 32 newly approved imported games on Thursday, including titles run by major technology firms including Tencent, NetEase and ByteDance.

Tencent’s stock price in Hong Kong gained 2.9 per cent on Friday.

Tencent, the Chinese partner of DnF Mobile developer Nexon, a Japanese-Korean game studio, first planned to launch the title in China in 2020, but was thwarted by Beijing’s tightened controls over game licensing and content at the time.

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NPPA’s approvals were a “positive surprise” as DnF Mobile from Tencent is “highly anticipated by the market”, Jefferies analysts wrote in a research note on Friday.

Two video games for the Nintendo Switch, Kirby Star Allies and Taiko no Tatsujin, also published by Tencent in China, were among the other titles in the newly approved batch.

Mobile games Bleach: Soul Resonance, operated in China by ByteDance-owned game studio Nuverse, and Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, published by gaming giant NetEase in China, were also approved for release.

Under Beijing’s strict censorship system for the country’s gaming market, the world’s largest-foreign game titles must apply for a licence through a Chinese partner before they can legally generate income in the country.

The proposed draft rules triggered a market rout that wiped out tens of billions of dollars of market value from Chinese video gaming firms, prompting concerns of an extended gaming industry crackdown in China.

Authorities then took steps to contain the damage, initially attempting to justify the proposal as an effort to promote the “healthy development” of the gaming sector. But Beijing later removed a key official involved in overseeing the country’s gaming market. And in a rare move, NPPA last month retracted its proposed rules, removing the notice of the draft regulation from its website.

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Last week, NPPA gave the green light to 115 new domestic video games, the largest batch in 18 months. In December, it approved 105 titles, the first time the number exceeded 100 games in one batch since July 2022.

China’s video game sales increased 14 per cent in 2023 to 303 billion yuan (US$42.7 billion), marking the highest annual total since the data became available in 2003, according to a report published in December by the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.

Chinese video gaming firms’ international expansion, however, slowed last year, with overseas sales of China-developed titles down 5.7 per cent year on year to US$163.7 billion.

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