China has started licensing new games once again

China has finally lifted the ban on approving new videogames for the country putting an end to a 9-month long software embargo by letting a list of 80 games pass the regulations. These are mostly small mobile projects from local Chinese developers, although the step itself marks a sign of "clearing skies" in the governmental policy.

The tables have turned, and Financial Times delivers a few quotes by famous industry analyst Daniel Ahmad who has expressed his strong belief that this is just the beginning. He expects more titles to be approved in the coming months including foreign videogames for major platforms. The full list of titles which have spent the last nine months in regulator's purgatory ramps up to a number of 5,000. There're many publishers affected by the ban including huge Chinese company Tencent which is famous for distributing various Battle Royale games.

The situation itself is nothing new for the industry in terms of prohibiting different branches of gaming. In September Chinese government banned Twitch, and we've recently covered the reports on banning PUBG, Fortnite, Paladins and others for depicting gore and violence. Chinese authorities are obviously fighting the stuff they see as a source of problems but prohibitions never lead to success.