China’s new regulatory body has continued new game approvals with the second wave of licences.
Reuters reports that while 84 new games have been greenlit in the latest batch of approvals since the process came back into service at the end of December, two of China’s biggest players remain locked out.
Tencent and NetEase failed to make the cut in this wave of approvals - and neither managed to get approval in the first batch greenlit just over a week ago. The block on approvals meant publishers were unable to launch or monetise titles in the region.
This was a real kick in the teeth for Tencent, which was unable to monetise PUBG Mobile, one of China’s biggest mobile games.
It should be noted however that both publishers were able to get numerous licences approved in advance of the big freeze. They continue to dominate local charts and released a number of titles in 2018.
We first reported on the full version of this story over on sibling site PocketGamer.Biz