On April 11, the official website of the State Press and publication administration showed that the first batch of domestic game version numbers had been issued in April 2022, and a total of 45 domestic online games had been approved. Among them, there are 37 mobile games, 5 client games, 2 leisure and puzzle mobile games and 1 switch gameP align = “center” release form of the national press and Publication Administration for the approval of domestic online games
This is the first game version number issued by the State Press and publication administration since July 22, 2021, with a total interval of 263 days.
Among the games with the approved version number, the key games include Baidu’s attacking rabbit, Wuhu 37 Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Group Co.Ltd(002555) ‘s dream voyage, Xishanju’s origin of sword net 3, heart network’s party star, G-Bits Network Technology(Xiamen)Co.Ltd(603444) subsidiary thunder network’s box fission, tower hunter, etc.
Boosted by this news, some Chinese game stocks rose in front of the market, with BiliBili rising by more than 10% and previously falling by more than 9%; Tiger teeth and Netease rose by more than 8% and Betta rose by more than 3%.
The issuance of game version number has a certain impact on the development of game industry. For example, after the suspension of game version number on July 22, 2021, the ETF of Huaxia China Securities animation game fell by 10.47% in five trading days; On February 21, 2022, the news of “no new game version in 2022” caused an uproar. It fell by 5.03% on February 22, and the share prices of game giants such as Tencent and Netease also fell during this period.
Ma Axin, an analyst at Analysys mutual entertainment industry, said that the tightening of edition numbers has a greater impact on small and medium-sized enterprises. Some small and medium-sized enterprises have limited game reserves, and most of them have only 1-2 products. They urgently need to launch products and realize output. Moreover, due to the limited development cost, some manufacturers prefer to choose products such as leisure, puzzle, chess and cards. Due to the large base, such products receive more strict supervision and review.
According to the statistics of shell finance reporter, from 2019 to 2021, the distribution of game version numbers showed a decreasing trend year by year. According to the official website data of the State Press and publication administration, a total of 755 game version numbers have been reviewed in 2021 (including 679 domestic games), while 1405 (1308 domestic games) in 2020; 1595 models in 2019 (1365 models made in China).
According to the 2021 China game industry report released by GPC and China Game Industry Research Institute, the actual sales revenue of China’s game market in 2021 was 296513 billion yuan, an increase of 17.826 billion yuan over 2020, a year-on-year increase of 6.4% and a year-on-year decrease of nearly 15%.
The reporter of shell finance and economics found that by querying the interactive platform of investor relations, many investors raised questions to game listed companies about the impact of the long-term suspension of game version numbers on the company. In this regard, Rastar Group(300043) said on April 6 that it “actively arranged the overseas sale of China Mobile Online Games”, Wuhu 37 Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Group Co.Ltd(002555) said on March 29 that “the company continues to pay attention to the distribution of Chinese game version numbers”, Shenzhen Bingchuan Network Co.Ltd(300533) said on March 25 that “the products currently approved are in the process of research and development, and the launch arrangement of new products will be determined according to various factors.”
For the impact of the suspension of game titles, at the beginning of this year, Zhang Jianchun, Vice Minister of the Central Propaganda Department, mentioned in his speech at the 2022 National Publishing (copyright) work conference that the suspension of the distribution of titles will cause the temporary stagnation of new games in China, but the existing huge game inventory and games with a long life cycle will not be affected, and the market pattern will not change. At the same time, Chinese game manufacturers will sink down to tap the potential of high-quality games and have more investment in the sea of games. On the contrary, it will catalyze the growth of domestic games and eliminate some skin changing and low-quality games and manufacturers in China.
“The opening meeting of edition number has both short-term and long-term benefits. In the short term, it may solve the problem of product delay of game enterprises, and in the long term, it lays a foundation for the continued development of the game market. Of course, edition number is not omnipotent, but without edition number, it is absolutely impossible. There are a lot of products in the provincial preliminary review, which must take some time.” Liao Xuhua, a senior analyst at Analysys, told shell finance reporters.
