Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Liu Wengyi

We expect it to be a good start.

On December 28, 2022, a piece of good news came from the game industry: the State Press and publication Administration announced the last batch of game approval information in 2022, with a total of 84 domestic games and 44 imported games getting version numbers.

In terms of the number of domestic version numbers, December is the month with the largest number of version numbers issued in 2022. The issuance of the import version number is even more commendable. For players in the cold winter, this is a warm gift.

People's attention to the version number reflects the attention to the industry. In fact, the release of version numbers is a concrete indication of industry policy. In this article, we try to analyze and predict the trend of industry policy in 2023 on the basis of public information. Of course, predicting the future is quite risky, so we will also set out our methods of analysis and principles of judgment.

The release time of the version number in December is later than before. Since the resumption of the release of the version number in April 2022, the time of each release is mostly in the first ten days of the month. However, affected by the epidemic and other factors, the release time of the version number has been delayed continuously, and the release time of the December version number is at the end of the month.

Considering the legal holiday arrangements such as New Year's Day and Spring Festival in January, the time left for examination and approval of the January edition is very tight. According to the past, the release of version numbers has been affected by many factors-including, but not limited to, the epidemic, home work, holidays and so on. In other words, even if the version number is not issued in the first quarter of 2023, the reason is likely to have nothing to do with policy. Therefore, we do not have to regard it as a negative signal. Of course, if you can issue a batch version number in the first quarter, it should definitely be seen as a very positive signal.

The total number of version numbers issued in 2022 is 512, compared with 1405 in 2020 and 755 in 2021. However, since the resumption of the release of version numbers in April 2022, from 45 in April to 84 in December, except for the period affected by the epidemic, the distribution frequency of version numbers has gradually become stable, and the number of version numbers has also shown an increasing trend as a whole. Considering that the impact of the epidemic on people's work and life is likely to be further reduced in 2023, various industries have begun a full economic recovery, and the version number in 2023 is expected to gradually return to a steady state.

The release of domestic game version numbers in 2022 shows an overall increasing trend. since April, a total of 7 version number approval information has been released in 2022, and the average number of games that have passed the examination and approval in each batch is 73. Based on the analysis of these figures, on the premise that there is no significant influence from the outside world, and considering that the first quarter is affected by factors such as the Spring Festival holiday, on the whole, the total number of version numbers issued in 2023 may be basically the same as in 2022, or slightly increased.

It should be noted that compared with domestic game version numbers, the number and frequency of imported game version numbers show a downward trend year by year after 2017. From 2018 to 2022, the number of imported games approved each year is 50, 180, 97, 76 and 44 respectively. At the same time, the frequency of release of approval results is also decreasing: two batches of imported game version numbers were released in 2021 (February and June) and only one batch was released in 2022 (December). Judging from the above, the release of imported game version numbers in 2023 is likely to be similar to that in 2022. In addition, in the approval process of imported games, the agency must coordinate and modify the compliance requirements with overseas game development teams many times, taking into account the time cost and communication cost, in the current situation, signing imported games still need to be fully prepared.

The trend of the number of imported game version numbers issued in the past 15 years since 2018, the release of version numbers has affected the attention of practitioners in the game industry. But in fact, as one of the most intuitive policy indicators, the inherent logic of the release of version numbers depends on the guiding ideology of the competent department. In order to analyze the trend of the industry in 2023 more clearly, we try to review the important policies and indicators related to the industry in the past and look for the inherent logic and instructions.

Regulatory change and policy trend at present, the department responsible for issuing version numbers is the State Press and publication Administration, which has undergone a lot of development and changes in the past 20 years. In order to further promote the reform of the cultural system, the former State Administration of Press and publication and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television were integrated with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in 2013 to form the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television to supervise and manage the content and quality of publications, radio, film and television programs, as well as copyright management.

In 2018, the duties of the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television were split again, and the original duties of press and publication and film management were transferred to the Central propaganda Department. According to the Circular of the State Council on the Establishment of institutions (2018) issued by the State Council in 2018, the State Press and publication Administration has put up a sign in the propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which will assume the relevant responsibilities by the propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. After several changes, the current State Press and publication Administration has no substantive organization, and the propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee is responsible for guiding the planning of the game industry.

Since 2018, the head of the Publishing Bureau of the propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has made many speeches on game management. In December 2018, leaders of the Publishing Bureau of the propaganda Department of Communist Party of China Central Committee attended the annual meeting of China's game industry and delivered a speech, requiring the game industry to better shoulder its cultural mission and fulfill its social responsibility. In April 2019, it was put forward at the national special conference on game management that "control is the last word, and development is the real skill". In the speech of the annual meeting of China's game industry in 2019 and 2020, the requirements such as "do a good job in preventing addiction, strictly control the content, and strictly abide by the rules and regulations" have been repeatedly mentioned. From these speeches and speeches, we can see that the main focus of the propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on the game industry is supervision and control.

On this basis, the Game Publishing working Committee of China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association (hereinafter referred to as "Game working Committee"), as a national industry social organization, is a bridge and link between the competent department of the industry and China's game industry. it provides a lot of guiding opinions on the implementation of management policies and self-discipline within the industry. At the same time, the industry norms advocated by the Game work Committee are also likely to become part of regulatory policies, such as the Mobile Game content Specification (2016 version) issued by the Voice and Digital Association in 2016, which later became an important standard in the game approval process.

The implementation of the anti-addiction policy is also a typical example: in August 2021, the State Press and publication Administration issued a notice on further strict management and effective prevention of minors from indulging in online games. the notice requires strict restrictions on the time for providing online game services to minors. In September of the same year, the Game working Committee and relevant game enterprises jointly launched the "Convention on self-discipline against addiction in the online Game Industry" under the guidance of the national competent departments. The "self-discipline Convention" not only explicitly requires to do a good job in preventing addiction, but also contains provisions such as the implementation of real-name certification, the boycott of bad content, the establishment of a sound game operation platform and so on.

The Game work Committee took the lead in issuing the self-discipline Convention on Prevention of Addiction in the online Game Industry. After the self-discipline Convention was announced, the policy of "the strictest prevention of addiction" was quickly implemented: game enterprises launched the new anti-addiction system in time, at the same time, with the help of technology such as face recognition to verify whether the real name authentication of the account was accurate, and to conduct a second check on the accounts of suspected minors who were online for a long time at night.

It is worth noting that in addition to the anti-addiction policy, other provisions of the self-discipline Convention have also been implemented. For example, Article 4 of the self-discipline Convention stipulates that the game e-commerce platform shall not provide account rental transaction services to minors in any form. In September 2021, a number of mainstream third-party game trading platforms issued a statement saying that they had taken strict measures to prohibit minor users from participating in any transactions on the platform. At the same time, the recharging behavior of minors has also been strictly restricted. as of January 2022, about 11000 accounts in Tencent's games triggered face recognition in the payment process, of which 72% were blocked.

Therefore, the contents mentioned in other provisions of the self-discipline Convention may become the focus of practitioners' follow-up attention.

One of the indicator events worth paying attention to is the implementation of the relevant provisions of the Game work Committee's "self-discipline Convention" and "Game Age Tips".

In addition to the policies against addiction that have already been implemented, there are still some initiatives in the self-discipline Convention launched by the Game work Committee that have not yet introduced management rules, such as boycotting "money worship", "beauty seeking" and "sissy" culture. as well as improving the rules and play design that induce players to indulge and guide players to spend, and so on. In 2022, there were some voices on the Internet that regarded animal ears, tails and other elements as "bad orientation" and suggested weakening such designs. In view of the fact that the industry norms and guiding opinions of the Game work Committee may be transformed into actual policy standards, these contents can be used as an important reference for observing the adjustment of standards and the changes of industry policy indicators in 2023.

Second, the level and speech attended by the leaders of the competent department at the large-scale game industry conference.

The relevant leaders of the competent department attending game exhibitions, game industry conferences and their speeches are also important weather vane of the industry. For a long time, at the large-scale and key game-related exhibitions held in China, the highest deputy ministerial leaders will attend. From 2020 to 2022, due to the epidemic and other reasons, many game exhibitions were delayed or transferred online, and relevant leaders were unable to attend.

In February 2023, the 2022 annual meeting of China's game industry, which was postponed by the epidemic, will be held in Guangzhou, and ChinaJoy and other exhibitions will also be held offline. At that time, practitioners in the game industry can judge the importance of the competent authorities to the industry as a whole from the high probability of the leadership levels attending the exhibition. As analyzed above, the speeches made by leaders at these meetings are not simple official speeches, but often reflect the management ideas of the industry in the following period of time.

Third, whether the new game support plan will be introduced.

The game support plan plays an important role in promoting the development of the game industry. In 2004, the General Administration of Press and publication issued a notice on the implementation of the Chinese National online Game Publishing Project, which aims to revitalize China's national game publishing industry and enhance the competitiveness of China's independent research and development of online games in the game market. policy support for excellent national online games. The project lasted until 2015, with a total of 214 independently developed "national online games" selected.

In 2016, SARFT officially launched the "original Game boutique Publishing Project", which aims to select 150 "original boutique games" within four years. In 2017, a total of 30 games were announced for the 2016 "Chinese original Game Publishing Project". In 2018 and 2017, 29 games were selected on the public list of works to be selected.

We can regard the game support program as a positive attitude. In 2023, if there is a new game support plan, it may herald a change in the guiding policy of the game industry from regulatory control to support development.

On the whole, we look forward to the steady development of the relevant policies of the game industry in 2023. Under the premise that the impact of the epidemic on people is expected to gradually decrease and various industries begin to fully recover, it is still too early to expect a subversive change in the policy of the game industry in a short period of time. The release of version numbers, standardized implementation, exhibition holding, support plans and other directions gradually on the normal track may be indicators worthy of attention in 2023.

Yesterday afternoon, the Game work Committee issued a notice that the 2022 annual meeting of the game industry will be held from February 12 to 14 this year. We expect this conference to be a good start for the gaming industry in 2023.

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