China's video games market recovers in 2023, domestic sales surpass $42.6 billion

Chinese chipmaker, Zhaoxin, has unveiled server solutions for the domestic market based on KH-40000 CPUs, featuring up to 64 cores in a single rack.

ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok aims to grow the size of its US e-commerce business tenfold to as much as $17.5 billion this year, according to people familiar with the matter, posing a bigger threat to Amazon.com Inc.

The largest technology stocks that lifted the broader market last year are having a less-rosy start to 2024. 

China removed an official at a government body overseeing its press and publications regulator, five sources who were briefed on the matter said, days after Chinese gaming stocks were hit by proposed rules to curb spending on video games. Feng Shixin was removed last week from his position as head of the publishing unit of the Communist Party's Publicity Department, the sources said. The department oversees the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) which in turn regulates China's vast video games sector.

Blizzard is reportedly back to working with Netease again to bring their video games to China.

Chinese tech giant Huawei said Friday it "weathered the storm" of US sanctions as it announced a rise of almost nine percent in revenues in 2023, a year that saw it shock Washington with the release of a high-end smartphone.

Following a 14-year partnership, Blizzard and NetEase had a loud and controversial split in late 2022. The Chinese publisher operated Blizzard's games in China as the licensed partner required by the government. The announcement came in November 2022, revealing to angry fans that popular games such as Overwatch 2, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm would not be available any longer starting on January 23, 2023 across mainland China.

Huawei’s comeback has been noticed by industry insiders, and most notably, its competitors, as the Mate 60 flagship series and the Kirin 9000S SoC pairing created a sales storm in China, garnering immense popularity that allowed the company to post an incredible 90 percent growth in October. However, Huawei’s resurgence might not be as meteoric as one previously expected because the latest data reveals that Apple has three iPhone models that are in the top 5 best-selling spot for the region.

China's draft online video gaming rules were designed to promote the healthy development of the industry, regulators said on Saturday, adding that the government would further improve the proposed rules after "earnestly studying" public views.

Regulators in China announced on Friday a wide range of rules aimed at curbing spending and rewards that encourage video games, dealing a blow to the world's biggest games market, which returned to growth this year.

China today announced a series of planned restrictions on video game monetization and engagement tactics, according to Reuters.

Chinese regulators have announced far-reaching curbs on monetisation and reward systems for online games, in a move that has wiped almost $80 billion from the market value of the world's biggest videogame publisher Tencent and their rival NetEase. Under the new government restrictions, which are pending final approval, online games in China will be banned from giving players rewards for logging in every day, spending money within the game for the first time, or spending money several times consecutively.