China’s Game Approval Issue Isn’t a Big Deal for Now, Says Big Publishers

A state of panic has been bubbling under the surface of the games industry ever since March, when China’s government put a freeze on all game licensing approvals. That freeze is still in effect, but for now, big publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, and Take-Two aren’t too worried about it.

At the moment, it’s a matter of timing. While nobody can speak for how this situation will play out in the future, most of the big games from these companies for the Chinese market managed to get approval before the freeze happened. This list includes NBA 2K19, FIFA 19, and Rainbow Six Siege.

In a report from Games Industry, these three publishers all commented on the situation, with similar narratives based on their big games for the Chinese market releasing in time. EA’s Blake Jorgensen stated that the company’s next title for China is “some way off,” and that the freeze seems to be more of a backlog issue following an administration change, over something to be worried about in the long term.

Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick told Games Industry that “China remains an enormous growth area,” and Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot noted that Rainbow Six Siege is currently out in China and generating revenue.

For now, it seems like big publishers can coast on their current content for a while, which grants them time to wait the situation out.

[Source: Games Industry]