China cracks down on micro transactions!

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/china-to-ban-some-monetization-and-engagement-tactics-in-games

The National Press and Publication Administrations released new draft rules that will ban a swath of common mechanisms in games, including daily log-in rewards, bonuses for first-time spenders, and incentives to spend repeatedly on a game.

Publishers will also be prohibited from offering loot boxes to minors or allowing for in-game items to be auctioned or used as speculative assets. Games will need to impose spending limits on players, while publishers will be required to run all their servers for Chinese games in China.

[Update]:Loot box researcher Leon Y. Xiao has also noted that one of the new requirements is that games with loot boxes must allow users to purchase the specific item they want directly as well. Additionally, should a game shut down, unspent currency must be refunded to players in real money at the rate it was originally purchased at. [/Update]

In one possible concession to the games industry, regulators would also need to rule on game approvals within 60 days of submission.

A lengthy game approval process for new releases has been an issue in China for several years. For nine months of 2021 and 2022, there was a complete freeze on approvals, no doubt contributing to the Chinese games industry seeing decreasing consumer spending on games last year for the first time in two decades.

Reuters noted that Tencent shares dropped as much as 16% and NetEase shares were down up to 25% after the rules were released.

"It's not necessarily the regulation itself - it's the policy risk that's too high," Steven Leung, executive director of institutional sales at broker UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong told Reuters. "People had thought this kind of risk should have been over and had started to look at fundamentals again. It hurts confidence a lot."

China has imposed restrictions on the games industry repeatedly in recent years, sharply limiting minors' playtime, banning livestreaming for those under 16, and imposing stricter rules around the depictions of religion and gender.

What say you, SW? Do you agree? While I dislike micro transactions, I believe in freedom to make your own decisions.

Holy shit that sounds awesome. Daily log in rewards is such a plague. All this FoMo mechanics are ruining video games, and its in every multiplayer title. For once, China did something great.

rip genshin

😆so true

Good.

Japan got this one😉

That sounds like a good thing.

An oppressive regime doing what should've been obvious to western democracies.

And i believe people are stupid and easy to manipulate. Especially young humans.

Publishers will also be prohibited from offering loot boxes to minors or allowing for in-game items to be auctioned or used as speculative assets.

and how are minors buying it if they don't have jobs?

You believe minors should get jobs? Those lzy bums...

I mean it's a double edged sword, loot boxes go away but piecemeal purchasing is still allowed, and I can see that being abused.

Loot boxes as well though purchasable with real currencies converted to special in-game currencies, curious if broad stroke prohibitions would also undo loot boxes earned with just in-game earned currencies or mission rewards.

China and other countries are also trying to crack down on how much people play games. Curious if in future they'll go after games with padded content, grindy mechanics and player progression next.

Based commy bastards.

They should go after all the other reasons of mobile games existance as well.

Life would be better without those gambling micro transactions.

The game industry [imo, obviously] needs an overhaul in their business practices and if it takes an oppressive government like China with a huge population of potential customers to lead the way or at least get the ball rolling, so be it.

It sounds somewhat "big brother", but sometimes people need to be saved from themselves.

Choice is good, but only if those choices are made in a legitimately "free-choice" environment; predatory marketing and microtransactions skew this concept in the retailer's favor. These corporations spend billions of dollars researching psychology, biochemistry, marketing, addiction patterns, and all kinds of crazy stuff so they can all but remove actual choice from people (while still providing the illusion of choice).

Are they forcing people to use microtransactions? No, but in some cases they might as well be. They learned all the wrong lessons from the tobacco companies. Go after children, use addiction and biochemistry, offer rewards, incentivize mass buying, and so on and so forth.

Regulation can be a good thing. Without it, we'd still have people painting their teeth with radium so they had glow in the dark smiles while giving themselves cancer, wondering why they have a giant tumor growing in their chins and their bones dissolved in their bodies.

At the end of the day, people won't know any better if they aren't educated, and corporations will exploit this until the people are dead or destitute. And it's far more effective to regulate than it is to educate, for better or worse. This is fact.

I’m not sure we want to emulate the Chinese government. Then again, I wouldn’t recommend emulating the American government either

nobody is asking to emulate everything they do, but what they've done to mtx is pretty much perfect

@lundy86_4 said:

Seriously? Me?

...and if yes, am I that bad? ☹

😋😉

Can't remember buying a micro transaction...

But I did spend money on a gacha machine a few weeks ago 😩

@mrbojangles25 said:

Seriously? Me?

...and if yes, am I that bad? ☹

😋😉

lol, no... Aimed at China.

@SolidGame_basic: fantastic. I'm all for free market but sadly there are too many people out there that have absolutely zero self control.

@mrbojangles25: damn, what an amazing post. Fully agreed on it..these corrupt politicians using the free market as a shield while performing disgusting acts. Sadly our very economy is built on consumer demand, and you have this concept of greed is good. Greed is good up to a point, but it just becomes toxic after a while, there needs to be moderation. If people were smarter or more educated, we could just let things be, but like you said, the corps have researched meticulously our biology to the cellular level and know how our brains tick.

Without these regulations, these disgusting bastards would even more shamelessly market to kids. They have toktok already ruining kids lives here, and it needs to be banned along with all short form social media. It's a scourge.

Something like this would never work here, at least on a national level. Individual states need to step up and go after these disgusting tech bro companies. **** them.

This would be a massive blow to microtransactions, as China is by far the largest market for microtransactions.

I just looked up the revenue breakdown of Genshin:

1. China - 30%
2. Japan - 23%
3. USA - 20%

Losing the domestic Chinese market would be a big blow to Genshin's Chinese dev, but they'll still be making a ton of money from Japanese and American players.

Microtransactions suck, but I'd think twice before praising the CCP in ANY capacity. Even with political BS in the Middle East right now.

Daily login rewards are such a massive annoyance and cause disruptions to daily lifestyle because people feel pressured to login for those silly “rewards”. These daily rewards make games feel more like chores instead of entertainment. Weekly rewards are okay by me, but daily rewards can GTFO.

I saw a video on YouTube that said companies like Mihoyo cannot sell videogames in China in the normal way. They cannot charge $70 (or the yen equivalent) for a game and can only receive money for micro-transactions so that has formed their business model. The Chinese Govt tried to ban gaming by not allowing them to sell games in the traditional model

Not too sure if that was/still is true. Maybe someone can confirm.

Hmm mixed feelings on this.

One on the one hand I hate MTX and the business model of mobile gaming especially. It's vile....truly vile. game design by accountants to nickle and dime people. It's seeping in everywhere into the industry. I still haven't bought Diablo 4 because i'm just waiting for Blizzard to pull the cover over the "Surprise". It's awful.

So anything to burn that with hellfire does sound really great. If we can also set a torch to games as a service, at a concept level, then that would also be fab. And also introduce the concept of "Merchantable quality" to games too. Game releases too buggy? Congrats on your mandatory recall across all platforms. Just how do you define "too buggy"?

However, as much as it pains me to say it, maybe an outright ban is a bit too far. Too authoritarian (so the usual MO for the crap heap known as the CCP). Perhaps slapping mandatory 18s/AO ratings on every game with MTX and loot boxes would be a better middle ground.

For loot boxes specifically, maybe force any publisher of a game with loot boxes to disclose things like chances to win, average cost to get all the things and such like as well as provide a link to help deal with gambling addiction. And I don't mean have it at the bottom of the page in small text: The info would need to be plastered right next to the Buy and Install buttons.

Also legislate for mandatory refunds for anyone who claims "their kids went on a spending spree".

Should have happened ages ago. Selling gambling to kids shouldnt be acceptable

Be more like China.

@Above: Agreed 💯 percent when it comes to gaming.

@hardwenzen: Not surprising. Microtransactions is the bread and butter for most of these Chinese game companies. Their finances are going to tank if the CCP cracks down on microtransactions.

Of course they're, and the same applies to Korean games as well. Panic mode must be at their maximum.

Genshin Impact is still printing money regularly

It's a dump and pump as long as it's just a draft of the law, instead of an actual law.