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Chinese publisher recieves $100,000 fine after releasing unlicensed mobile game

The country's license freeze ended late last year

Chinese publisher recieves $100,000 fine after releasing unlicensed mobile game

An undisclosed Chinese company has been fined almost $100,000 for publishing an unapproved mobile game in China.

According to The South China Morning Post, the games company was fined ¥700,000 ($99,000), which is seven times more than the revenue earned from the game.

Chinese law dictates that a fine between five and 10 times the amount of revenue earned on an unlicensed game can be given to the company at fault.

Stricter laws

China had a nine-month freeze on licensing new games, meaning that no companies could get licenses to sell and monetise their games, regardless of whether they were based in China or not. The freeze ended in December 2018.

The country's game regulator also enforced stricter laws on the amount of time people below the age of 18 are allowed to play games. Chinese companies began pushing for a new age-rating system earlier this year including Tencent, NetEase and Perfect World.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.