Despite its status as a mastodon and a consumer country in all areas, China has not really opened up to video games officially in just a few years. The PS4 for example was only authorized to be marketed on January 11, 2015, while the Xbox One made its introduction in the country 5 months earlier, on September 30, 2014. Until then, no console had had the approval of the Chinese government and the players of the country had to go through the import via Hong Kong or Taiwan for example. As much to tell you that in terms of classification of games by age, nothing had been done so far. But things are moving and we have just learned of the introduction of a system which allows games to be classified according to the age of the players. Or the equivalent of PEGI in France and ESRB in the United States.
It was through the regulatory body “China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association” that the request was made at the annual conference of the Chinese games industry in Guangzhou on Wednesday, December 16, 2020. games have been divided into 3 age categories, each represented by a specific color: green for 8+, blue for 12+ and finally yellow for 16+. Such a classification in China is also the result of Tencent and NetEase, the two Chinese giants, which are very interested in video games and keep buying Western studios and publishers. They were not alone, since 52 other organizations participated in the development of this “Chinese PEGI”.
If we trust the thread proposed on Daniel Ahmad’s Twitter account, a Chinese analyst who works at Niko Partners, we learn that the choices during this classification were combed 41 times before final validation, since the goal is to support the player through positive advice, especially minors . To do this, it is moreover officially specified that the mentions must systematically appear on the game boxes, on the official websites of each title, launch of the game (on the title screen), but also on all documents related to the game, such as advertising.
The China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association Technical Committee for Group Standardization (whew) has formally introduced a new age rating system for video games in Mainland China today.
Games will be rated for ages 8+ (Green), 12+ (Blue) and 16+ (Yellow). pic.twitter.com/tb0924YGCj
– Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 16, 2020
