More than ten Chinese games companies including Tencent, NetEase and Perfect World are pushing for a new system to rate games in the country.
That's according to local media outlet People's Daily - as reported by Bloomberg - which says that the aforementioned companies have already outlined what such a rating system would entail. It isn't a million miles away from Europe's PEGI and ESRB in the United States, with four categories for the ages of six, 12, 16 and 18. It's missing a 3/Everyone rating, but this is only because China doesn't want to encourage children below the age of six playing games.
The proposal is set to be discussed by a committee of experts that features press, researchers and exec.
This follows a nine-month freeze on approvals for video games in China during 2018. This started in March 2018 and ended the following December, with the government regulator having a backlog of thousands of games to approve by the time the floodgates opened. It was taking so long to get through the pile-up of titles set to be giving the thumbs up in China that the body overseeing approvals was considering a second freeze to... allow them to get through the leftovers of the first.
With approvals opened once more, there is a new system for what makes the cut in the region. Like those that came before, there is frustration with the new framework as - aside from some obvious items - it isn't really clear what is and is not allowed.
