The Chinese Communist Party has used the usual justification (restrictions around minors’ internet use and playtime for their health).

In March, the Chinese government announced new plans to extend the existing restrictions on young people to live streaming and social media. At the time, it was seeking feedback from the public. Still, some things are already being made law, with Reuters reporting that the country’s national radio and television administration has banned the broadcasting of unauthorised games.

It should be pointed out that it refers to games that the Chinese censors have not evaluated. Those authorised for domestic release are not affected. Everything else is. Broadcasts and eSports tournaments outside China are not allowed either. The law even asks broadcasters not to use a traffic-oriented aesthetic and also cracks down on undesirable behaviour: they want them to interact with their viewers in a civilised and healthy online environment…

“Issues such as online live broadcast chaos and teenagers’ addiction to games have attracted widespread attention in society. It is urgent to take effective measures to strictly regulate them,” the first paragraph of the new guidelines states. But the problem is that Chinese streaming platforms (Huya, DouYu, Bilibili) often broadcast games that are not officially licensed in China.

According to Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, “Elden Ring was a hit on Chinese game live streaming platforms, reaching 17.1m cumulative daily average viewers in its first week, but it’s not approved for sale there (people still find ways to buy it, of course). If it’s fully enforced, Elden Ring couldn’t be streamed.” It comes just one day after Chinese tech giant Tencent took the first steps to ensure that unlicensed foreign games are not available on its platforms…

But they have just started to reissue licences after almost a year of stalling. It is beginning to look a lot like Orwell’s 1984…

Source: PCGamer