Livestreaming Of Unapproved Video Games Banned In China

For a number of months now, the Chinese government has been enacting new laws in a bid to curb gaming habits which they liken to an “addiction”. All gamers must use their legal names as opposed to usernames, and under 18s are limited to just three hours of gaming a day. Tech giant Tencent have even gone as far as using facial recognition within their games to block young people out of gaming altogether.

China previously expressed plans to extend their curbs on gaming over into social media and livestreaming. Well, it seems that that day has finally come.

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A new report released by Reuters details that China’s National Radio and Television Administration has banned livestreams of all unauthorised video games. The ban also blocks livestreams of unauthorised games and esports events based outside of China. As translated by PC Gamer, the report requests that gamers avoid “traffic-oriented” aesthetics and other “undesirable” behaviours during livestreams.

All video games in China must receive the government's approval prior to release, but that doesn’t always stop gamers getting their hands on the latest unauthorised titles. Many of these are streamed on some of the countries’ major streaming platforms including DouYu, Huya, and Bilibili.

In recent weeks, one of the most popular unauthorised games has been FromSoftware’s smash hit Elden Ring. Well, the law now essentially deems any livestreaming of Elden Ring to be illegal. Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at the Niko Partners research firm, recently stated that Elden Ring had “17.1 million cumulative daily average viewers [earlier this year], despite not having a licence.”

Chinese gamers have been finding creative ways to avoid the curbs, with many e-commerce sites renting out adult age-rated accounts to under 18s to extend their permitted three hours of gaming a day. It awaits to be seen how this latest move will affect China’s community of livestreamers.

Topics: Elden Ring, World News