China’s gaming regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration’s (NPPA), has officially removed their website rules that were proposed just last month and were focused on curbing the spending and rewards set in place to encourage playing video games, according to Reuters (via Yahoo).
The move led to a boost in gaming company shares.
The link to the draft rules that was present on the National Press and Publication Administration’s (NPPA) official website was inaccessible as of Tuesday morning and the consultation period on the rules expired on Monday.
When first announced, they resulted in plenty of criticism, controversy and backlash.
The removal of the announcement could signal “there might be further changes in the new measures”, Xiaoyue Hu, an analyst at Haitong Securities, said via the report by Reuters.
The development led to a big day for the world’s biggest gaming company, Tencent Holdings, as well as their biggest competitor NetEase, who saw shares rise as much as 6% and 7% in morning trading and their shares were still up more than 4% at noon against a 2.4% increase in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index demonstrating an instant “win” for the shift.
While the proposed rules were met with resistance, Article 17 and Article 18 particularly caused the most controversy.
Article 17 sought to ban video games from forcing players into combat, a major anchor in the gaming industry specifically in the multi-player genre. Additionally, Article 18 requires games to set a spending limit for players and also focused on barring features that incentivize players to spend in the game.
