China has announced that it is stepping up inspections for online gaming operators to crack down on those violating regulators.
The Ministry of culture made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that it plans to conduct inspections of 200 online games operators in the country, Technology News China reported. The ministry detailed that it will be personally conducting the inspections for 50 of the randomly-selected online game operators.
On the other hand, local officials from the cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzen, and Hangzhou will review 30 operators each.
The ministry added that the inspections will home in on operators that are violating regulations, including not having licenses, importing games without official approval, showing banned content, and not implementing real-name registration of players. The number of operators to be inspected represents about 13 percent of online games operators in the country.
Ministry officials also said that they also plan to conduct additional inspections on a regular basis in order to cover all of the other operators within two years. The ministry added that it will focus on repeat offenders, as well as those which are the subject of public complaints.
China has very strict regulations when it comes to online games, with operators being required to limit the playing time of minors by implementing in-game measures. In August, the ministry also called on 26 operators to rectify various violations.
Meanwhile, major games publisher Blizzard announced that it has renewed its partnership with Chinese company NetEase for the publications of the former's game titles in the country. Venture Beat reported.
According to Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime, their partnership with NetEase helped them bring the best gaming experience to Chinese players. Meanwhile, NetEase CEO William Ding added that the collaboration has brought in a lot of success for the two companies.
Blizzard partnered with NetWese in 2008 as part of Chinese regulations, bringing many of the former's popular titles like StarCraft, Warcraft, and Overwatch. As well as its Battle.net service, into the country. The two companies have repeatedly said that their goal is to have Chinese releases of new Blizzard games occur simultaneously as other regions.