China approves 27 overseas video games as it reopens market to global titles

China has granted licences for the domestic release of 27 foreign games, as it gradually reopens the world’s largest gaming market to international titles after

The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) published a list of recently approved titles on Monday. The list included 22 mobile games and three PC games from the country’s top gaming companies, including Tencent Holdings and NetEase, which serve as agents for the titles from abroad.

The most recent releases also include “Merge Mansion,” a mobile merge game from Finland’s Metacore, and “Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross,” a popular role-playing game from South Korea’s Netmarble.

Uma Musume: Beautiful Derby, a tremendously well-liked franchise from Japan’s Cygames, will be published locally by Bilibili (BILI).

XD, Yostar, and iDreamSky Technologies are among the other Chinese publishers on the list.

Out of the 27, seven games were created in Japan, followed by five in South Korea.

After freezing approval of games for almost a year, China resumed issuing licenses for domestic games in April 2022, and in January and February of this year, respectively, it approved 88 and 87 licenses for games created by domestic companies.

A total of 45 foreign games, including “Pokémon Unite” by Nintendo and “Valorant” by Riot Games, were ultimately given approval by the Chinese regulator in December of last year, after which foreign games were still unable to enter the Chinese market.