Author / MA CE

A news that “the whole Shanghai game industry is laying off workers” spread like wildfire more than a week ago. The news not only caused concern, affected the secondary market shock, but also caused panic because of the transmission of rumors.

The news said that many game companies, including Netease, Lilith and IgG, are cutting off their own research projects or layoffs. There is still more bad news behind the layoffs - it is reported that the “edition number of the game will be stopped all year round” in 2022. On February 21, the day the news was sent out, Hong Kong stock game stocks fell sharply. Among them, Tencent holdings fell by more than 5%, station B fell by nearly 10%, and stocks such as heart company and Netease games also fell to varying degrees.

Soon, the rumor attracted Tencent and several other major game manufacturers to refute the rumor urgently. Tencent said that the so-called “heavy hammer” was a rumor, and the account spreading the rumor was quickly cancelled after Tencent’s official appearance. In fact, in the past seven months, there has been no release of game version numbers, but the relevant competent authorities have never said that they will not release version numbers throughout the year. Behind the industry that fell sharply is mainly market panic.

On the evening of February 21, relevant persons from the State Press and publication administration also responded that there was no clear response for the time being. They can pay attention to the announcement information on the official website, but they are still receiving the version number application of the game company normally.

The game version number is equivalent to the license for game compliance operation. Whether we can get the version number is related to the online operation of game products. It can be said to be the lifeblood of every game that wants to be commercialized in China, and therefore affects the nerves of the industry. The suspension of edition number is a major bad news for large listed companies, while it may be a major adjustment for small and medium-sized teams.

Public information shows that since July 22, 2021, when the State Press and Publication Administration announced the list of approved online games in that month, the approval information of game version number has been suspended for more than seven months. This is also another “long pause” since the game version was completely suspended for 9 months due to the restructuring of regulators in March 2018.

If the company’s leaders don’t know the direction of the game development, they think it’s too bad to stop the game development in time; The news gradually spread and reached the ears of employees. The main reason was that the project itself could not get the version number; Then spread to the outside, and directly evolved into games of the same type. No version number will be issued.

Insiders quite agree with this view and believe that it appropriately reflects the current situation of the game industry. But the more rumors spread, the more outrageous, but also reflects the fragile side of the industry itself.

Quiet waiting

Game practitioner Wu Yong first heard the rumor that the version number was restarted in October 2021. Since then, there have been rumors about the resumption of distribution every month.

Wu Yong was originally optimistic. In his understanding, since the long-term suspension in 2018, although the total number of games reviewed has been reduced year by year, the game version number has been approved and issued in an orderly manner. “It should be the need of juvenile protection provisions.” He previously expected that the suspension time would not be very long.

By the end of 2021, the game industry had no news of version number approval for nearly half a year. Approaching the Spring Festival of 2022, the news of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard broke the silence of the game circle. Wu Yong also forwarded relevant news reports at that time, but the supporting text had nothing to do with the acquisition case itself - I hope there will be more domestic version numbers in the year of the tiger, which is also the voice of many domestic gamers.

Wu Yong told Caijing Tianxia weekly that when the relevant departments did not update the version number approval information for several consecutive months, the industry inevitably entered a state of anxiety. “Companies can’t always rely on old games, and not all companies have old games to rely on. Especially now, you can’t predict when they will be released.”

The impact of edition number suspension on the industry can be referred to 2018. In March of that year, due to the reform of national institutions and the adjustment of regulatory authorities, the issuance of game version numbers was comprehensively suspended and did not resume until the end of December of the same year. Tencent was unable to get the version number at that time, which led to the mobile game Jedi survival: stimulating the battlefield (later revised to peace elite) being in the testing stage for a long time.

In fact, 2018 is a year for the Jedi to survive for the game industry. The suspension of edition number and the normative adjustment of mobile games without edition number have made the domestic game industry enter a cold winter this year, and the growth rate of mobile game revenue has fallen by more than 60% year-on-year. According to CCTV news, in the first three quarters of 2018, the net profit of 42% of domestic listed game companies fell.

“2018 is an important watershed.” A game media person analyzed Caijing Tianxia weekly. According to statistics, the game approval was relatively loose before 2018, and the number of game edition numbers issued in 2017 exceeded 9300. However, in 2018, the cumulative number of distributions was reduced to 2064. Since then, the total number of version numbers issued has decreased year after year. The number of game version numbers issued in 2019 and 2020 are 1570 and 1405 respectively. By 2021, this figure is almost “halved”, only 755.

“It may not be realistic to expect (after this recovery) more version numbers.” The analyst said. The cold winter of edition number beginning in 2021 is generally considered to be related to the protection requirements for minors.

In 2021, the review of juvenile protection and anti addiction to games will go further. The newly revised law on the protection of minors has added a number of provisions on the protection of minors’ information and the prevention of Internet addiction in the field of game compliance. At the end of August 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the notice on further strict management to effectively prevent minors from indulging in online games, requiring online game enterprises to significantly reduce the time for providing online game services to minors and limit them to one hour a day from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This is called the strictest new game rule in the history of the industry.

The cold winter of edition number will undoubtedly bring business impact to many game companies. “It’s equivalent to more than half a year’s cost for each new game.” Zhang Yi, an independent game developer, told Caijing Tianxia weekly that his friend’s game company had great business difficulties. Before, this friend and his group