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China’s Ministry of Culture slaps games (including I am MT Online) for illegal gambling, other violations

China’s mobile gaming scene is massive, and for the most part, it’s pretty unregulated. There are tons of third party app stores, and a small enough game can get away with a lot just by flying under the radar. But yesterday China’s Ministry of Culture took a step towards cracking down on these games with a publication on its website naming and shaming violators and giving them until the end of the month to clean up their act.

For Chinese gamers, the most relevant news is that eight games have been found guilty of violating Chinese law by having randomized drawing systems whereby the user can pay real or virtual currency for a randomized in-game product or service. The list of violators of this statute includes some big hitters, including popular mobile card battling game I am MT (我叫MT) and gem-matching battle game Against War (逆转三国). The full list of violators can be found here.

Since the devs have been given until the end of the month to update their games and remove the offending systems, its unlikely that any of these games will actually be taken offline as a result of the Ministry’s directives today. More likely this is just the Ministry of Culture asserting its authority and reminding everyone that it is watching. This sort of thing happens with some regularity in the Chinese tech industry, and likely does not indicate a major sea change in the way mobile games are regulated.

With that said, though, you never know. If you’re a mobile game dev who is interested in China, be sure that there’s no part of your game that could be construed as gambling. (Or that even mentions gambling; the Ministry’s missive yesterday also singled out a variety of companies for having the word “casino” in their games, which they’re not supposed to.

(via Sina Tech)

The post China’s Ministry of Culture slaps games (including I am MT Online) for illegal gambling, other violations appeared first on Games in Asia.


The post China’s Ministry of Culture slaps games (including I am MT Online) for illegal gambling, other violations appeared first on Games in Asia.