Friday, December 22nd 2023
New Chinese Online Gaming Regulations Send Tencent, NetEase, and Other Gaming Stocks Crashing
China, earlier today, brought into effect new online gaming and gambling regulations, which aim to curb down the time spent by gamers online, and remove all incentives to play daily, by regulating the way games reward gamers to play daily or often, causing them to spend more time and money online. The announcement sent shockwaves through the financial markets, causing investors to drain about $80 billion in value from two the leading online gaming stocks, Tencent and NetEase. The regulations essentially set spending limits for online games, by spelling out the exact ways in which game studios can monetize their online experiences and play reward systems. Tencent lost about 16% in share price, while that of NetEase crashed by 25%. Prosus, which owns a 26% stake in Tencent, slid by 14.2% in the markets. This is expected to have an effect on Western markets that open for trading in a bit.
Source:
Reuters
36 Comments on New Chinese Online Gaming Regulations Send Tencent, NetEase, and Other Gaming Stocks Crashing
Regulation. It just works
I like that idea a lot ... European Commision i mean you too.
If it's regulations against the corps ok.
If it's a rainy day or -40C and I want to play a game for 3 hours, I wouldn't want to be regulated to 1 hour.
Next get rid of games like candy crush they're way to violent :laugh:
For example, gambling halls are not accessible under 18 in many countries. For all the right reasons too
The games being regulated are in the same category, but actually worse, because the barrier of entry is zero. Literally. 'Free to play.'
We're just sleepwalking into it. But any in-game store is really more of the same. Monetization within escapism. Its bad. We need it to go away. And while I personally don't care much for regulation, I still think a lot of people need it. Regulation is also guidance for parents, for example. It puts things in the right perspective, the effect is much wider than just regulating said companies.
I lived in a third-world s**thole where criminals will happily murder you to prevent you from reporting them to the police. I thankfully don't live there anymore, for what are hopefully extremely obvious reasons. I really wish you'd spend some time there, to learn appreciation for the laws of the country that you currently live in.
"Hello, police?"
"Yes, sir?"
"One suspicious guy is apparently trying to kill me"
"Call me when he actually does so"
It's literally the way they operate. Profit before national safety. And it massively sucks. Penitentiary system is also in a gutter because it only punishes convicted people (a lot of them ain't really criminals, they were just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place in the wrong time) without granting any chance to recover and progress as a civilised human being. Vicious circle in a nutshell.
Yet on paper it's all shiny and almost everything bad is banned and according to the lawsuits, gets appropriate "treatment." Huh. One can only wish.
It's not like Russia is the most dangerous place to find yourself in but it's definitely far from ideal. Settling on "doing X is illegal from now" is not enough. This X has to be, ideally, prevented and not just banned and giving you a jail ticket if you commit that.
China regulating lootbox addiction are doing the right thing in general but they also need to address the reason people fall into such adventures: they feel the need for escapism. They don't like the reality they live in. You can't stop a heroin addict from being a junkie if you just take all the syringes from them. They will still continue despising their life and searching for a fix since it's better dead than sober for them.
That being said, the Chinese state intervention is as much about controlling the narrative as it is 'helping' people. That's my opinion, anyway.
I suppose in this instance we should just say it's a decent idea that could be implemented without the evil plot-twist.
Gambling with loot boxes and real money should be regulated like all any other gambling businesses.
The regulations should protect kids, as an adult you should have the full monty.
nypost.com/2023/12/20/news/71-year-old-oklahoma-man-exonerated-after-nearly-50-years-in-prison-for-murder-he-did-not-commit
Except money or "better" opportunities to earn them there's very little difference between a democracy & kleptocracy these days! Oh & the illusion of free & fair elections, hint the corporate overlords have already picked your chieftain :laugh: