China approves 110 new games including Plants vs. Zombies 3

China has approved 110 games in February including EA’s Plants vs. Zombies 3 and two other foreign titles. 

As reported by South China Morning Post, the country's National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) approved titles such as NetEase’s Lingshou Adventures and KillHouse Games' Door Kickers: Action Squad.

Monthly game approvals have consistently exceeded 100 over the past year. However, in April and May, approvals dipped slightly  95 and 96 approvals, per NPPA data.

Continuous approvals

In January, China approved 136 games including Tencent's Honor of Kings: World, an open-world action RPG spin-off of the popular Honor of Kings.  

The country’s games industry has seen some regulatory improvements since the 2021 crackdown which halted game approvals for eight months and imposed strict playtime limits for minors. 

In 2024, regulators approved 1,306 domestic and 110 foreign games, up from 977 and 98 in 2023, and significantly higher than 2022’s 468 and 44. 

In comparison, over 1,500 games were approved in 2019 following a freeze in 2018, when more than 2,000 titles were licensed.

Plants vs. Zombies overhaul

While Plants vs. Zombies has been approved for release in China, it should be noted that EA announced in October last year the title is undergoing a "major overhaul".

Servers for the title's soft launch were shut down in November and the publisher did not give a timeframe of when it might emerge again.