China Proposes Mobile Game Regulations Banning Gacha Incentives, Including Daily Logins

22.12.2023 - 21:04 / mmorpg.com / Diablo Immortal

Chinese regulators could ban to some of the mobile gacha industry’s most well-known tactics, including login and purchase rewards if a new set of proposals goes through. 

The National Press and Publication Administration, which is responsible for gaming regulations in China, is directly targeting game rewards that are common in mobile games to incentivize returning players. 

The most severe restrictions bar daily login incentives/rewards and purchase frequencies (such as a “first-time purchase bonus”); other regulations will limit currency recharging and give players warnings if they spend too much for “irrational consumption behavior.” These are activities most frequently (and infamously) seen in “gacha” games, which ask players to buy luck-based, roulette-like “pulls” for gameplay items, bonuses and rewards, often a key part of progressing these games. 

If put into place, these regulations will directly impact some of the world’s biggest mobile games. Already according to Reuters , the stock for Netease, a major mobile game publisher including Diablo Immortal and the Dead By Daylight mobile game, at one point reached a 25% loss. Media megacorp Tencent, which owns many gaming studios in China and around the world, whose portfolio includes Tower of Fantasy and is building upcoming PC and mobile MMO Tarisland, has seen a dip as well, seeing a 16% decrease in stock value at one point (though it’s closer to 10% now). 

There are also rules about national security in these regulations, according to the New York Times , requiring servers and all game development-related computers to be located in China, plus stating that “games must not contain state secrets [nor] endanger national security.” 

The proposals are not final yet and can be amended after public and industry feedback periods lasting into late January. 

China has been at the forefront of regulating gaming and its industry within its borders. Starting in 2019, the country set daily restrictions on the gaming time of minors. During a stretch in 2021 and 2022 in which the country sought tighter technology industry regulations, publishers couldn’t submit games at all.