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Feng Shixin, a senior official of the ruling Communist Party's
Propaganda department, said in a speech at a gaming conference
in the southern city of Haikou that a first batch of approvals
for games had been completed, according to a transcript of the
speech and the organizers of the event.
That helped propel Tencent's shares up by as much as 4.6
percent, putting the gaming-to-social media giant on course for
its steepest daily share price jump in over a month.
China stopped approving new titles from March amid a regulatory
overhaul triggered by growing criticism of video games for being
violent and leading to myopia as well as addiction among young
users.
The freeze on new approvals has pressured gaming-related stocks
and clouded the outlook for mobile games, rattling industry
leader Tencent and peers like NetEase Inc.
"We hope through new system design and strong implementation we
could guide game companies to better present mainstream values,
strengthen a cultural sense of duty and mission, and better
satisfy the public need for a better life," Feng said.
Earlier this month, state media reported that Chinese regulators
had set up an online video games ethics committee, raising hopes
the government was preparing to resume an approval process that
has been frozen for most of this year.
"This is clearly exciting news for China's gaming industry," a
Tencent spokesman said in written comments.
"We're confident that after the publishing license approval, we
will provide more compliant, high-quality cultural works to
society and the public."
The gaming freeze in China has dragged down Tencent's shares
this year and wiped billions of dollars off its market value.
The firm's stock is down more than 20 percent in 2018.
According to a Hainan propaganda department official at the
gaming event, a new pilot approval mechanism is set to be rolled
out in the tropical province, which would include positive and
negative lists, combining artificial intelligence audits and
expert censorship.
Some industry insiders, however, said they remained cautious to
see what the new mechanism would look like in action.
"While there is no clear legislation on video game regulation,
it's up to the regulator to decide what they pass and what they
don't. There is still a lot of uncertainty," said an executive
at Tencent's game division, asking not to be named.
(Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI and Pei Li
in BEIJING; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher Cushing)
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