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China establishes Online Games Ethics Committee as end of games freeze nears

20 reviews have taken place, nine games rejected under new regulations

China establishes Online Games Ethics Committee as end of games freeze nears

In news that will come as little surprise to anyone, China now has an Online Game Ethics Committee.

That's according to local publication News.cn - via Google Translate - which says that this body has been established by the Central Propaganda Department and is comprised of experts from various parts of Government, as well as education, media and industry organisations.

This new organisation has the aim of responding to social concerns, enhance the ideological and cultural overtones in online games, as well as making sure developers and publishers play by Chinese societal rules.

Game freeze coming to an end?

All-in, this body is there to handle games that are, or could be, the subject of a moral panic. The first batch of games have been reviewed with the developers of 11 titles being asked to make changes before being published, while nine titles have been rejected.

This follows a strange year for video games in China with the regulatory not approving any new titles for much of 2018. This was due to a restructure, with a new regulatory body called State Administration of Radio and Television being formed in March, as well as new restrictions designed to halt a wave of eye-sight issues in China.

Our sister-site PCGamesInsider.biz has more on the story.


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.