China has once again given the whole world a cause for concern. This time, because of the possible restrictions on the number of video games in the country. The official reason for toughening the control over the game market is … healthcare. According to the General Secretary of the People`s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, there are too many “children in glasses”, so restrictions limiting the number of video games permitted in the country will be introduced “to allow them to have a bright future”.

According to Niko Partners, about 600 million gamers live in the Celestial at the moment — twice as many as the whole US population. It is not surprising, that the shares of Tencent, which owns League of Legends, have dropped by 5 percent in just one day after the Secretary`s statement.

The care for children is considered to be just a pretext for strengthening the regulations.

It must be told that the Chinese market of video games has its own features and is very different from the western one.

The main difference concerns the principles of game monetization. If western developers are mainly focused on game sales, in China the emphasis is laid on in-game purchases and microtransactions. The Chinese players have got used to the fact that if they want to pass a game and win, they have to pay money. Players pay for characters’ weapons and clothes, extra abilities, the opportunity to pass a difficult level or defeat a boss and also gifts visible to everybody. Accordingly, game designers concantrate first of all on monetization and strive to make the player stay in the game for as long as possible and spend a lot of money. The different approaches to game development constitute the main reason why many popular games in China are not known in the West and vice versa.

Secondly, because Chinese people work much, they usually play during lunch breaks or on their way to work. When they come home, they basically go to bed right away. Therefore, mobile applications and games are in great demand in the Celestial Empire.

Thirdly, the Chinese market was formed under the influence of various restrictions. For example, for a long time China prohibited almost all game consoles. When they finally appeared on sale, many gamers thought them to be too expensive. Therefore, now the Chinese black market of consoles and games is thriving. Just like the culture of game clubs. The majority of Chinese people prefer playing new games in clubs to spending money on the purchase of hardware and consoles.

Even despite the high internal competition, the game market in China remains attractive (even to foreign developers) because of its size. Therefore, the possible restrictions will undoubtedly affect game developers abroad.

There is also another take on this game monetization ban — alegedly, it can be connected with the wide circulation game money in the country. About half a year back, the Chinese government prohibited ICOs and the circulation of cryptocurrencies. Experts connected this step with the government’s plans to introduce a national cryptocurrency and prevent money laundering and illegal transactions. It is possible that the restrictions on the distribution of video games are the next step of the Chinese government in the struggle against virtual money.

The experience of the South Korean platform Hangame shows that a game currency can be used for illegal transactions quite successfully. It is one of the most popular playgrounds in the countryand has its own currency, Hancoin. According to one of the platform’s developers, the game currency was used by gangsters as early as the beginning of the 2000’s. By means of this game currency, the players can buy different items and features in games, improve their profiles and exchange achievements.

Furthermore, we can assume, that in the future the government of China will use video games to distribute their own cryptocurrency by simply obliging all developers to utilize cryptoyuan for the access to the home market.

However, it is just an assumption.

By the way, two new games — Tikal Riches and Secrets of Egypt — have been launched on the FairWin platform. You can play for free here.

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