On December 22, the "Measures for the Administration of Online Games" (draft for comments) drafted by the National Press and Publication Administration was released to the public for comments. On the same day, the news caused a huge shock in the market, and game stocks plummeted, triggering heated discussions among game companies and external investors, and the impact and influence far exceeded the previous game policy opinions.
A policy to guide healthy development ended up bringing about such a big negative effect?It's worth thinking about.
First, let's take a look at the background of the policy. In fact, this is not the first time that the official game-related policy opinions have been issued, since the rapid development of the online game industry, a number of relevant laws, regulations, policies and systems have been introduced. Following the introduction of keywords such as "standardized operation", "total control" and "anti-addiction of minors" since 2017, the market has gradually changed from chaotic and orderly competition in the past to orderly and standardized competition guided by policies. In recent years, initiatives such as inheriting excellent traditional culture and competing for high-quality games have reflected that policy guidance has entered a new stage, recognizing that China's game products have considerable market competitiveness, and that there are conditions to give birth to a number of game products with healthy content and rich and diverse forms from game enterprises, and go abroad to show their strength to the world on behalf of domestic products.
The purpose of this policy opinion, especially Articles 17 and 18 of the Consultation Draft, is mainly to "prohibit forced battles" and "restrict excessive use and high consumption of games". However, game companies operate different products, which may also affect the problem of some compliant and excellent small and medium-sized enterprises facing obsolescence.
Secondly, we also need to see that in the past two years, the survival environment faced by game companies has been much worse than before. The impact of the tightening of capital on all parties cannot be ignored, including game investment, there are not a few domestic game companies struggling to survive in the stock situation, and under the pressure of business management, any change in the additional cost of games may evolve into the last straw. In fact, in the past two years, there are many game companies that have stopped online operations or laid off their game departments.
On the other hand, this is also the new policy that has the greatest impact on the market and the industry after the game industry has substantially completed the access to the anti-addiction system for minors, and the opinions are almost all aimed at adult game players, and with the help of games and e-sports, KOLs are also active in the *** platform that has attracted the attention of many capitals, and the impact of their preferences for games on the game market is also obvious, and some drastic policy changes will also form a wave of discussion.
All kinds of online evaluation of the new deal will also amplify the anxiety of the market. In particular, the new policy covers a large number of details specific to the game, which has an impact on different objects such as capital, enterprises, and consumers.
On December 23, the relevant person in charge of the Copyright Administration said: The public solicitation of opinions on departmental rules is a process of listening to opinions more widely and improving the rules and regulations. The State Press and Publication Administration will carefully study the concerns and opinions raised by all parties on Articles 17, 18 and other contents of the Draft, and will further revise and improve them on the basis of continuing to listen to the opinions of relevant departments, enterprises, users and other parties.
The Copyright Administration issued a response the next day, which shows the importance of the official game industry, and the response uses the keywords of "prosperity", "health" and "development", and it can also be seen that it is to strengthen the determination of the outside world to develop the game industry, but the new variables may have a significant impact on the confidence of the main body of the enterprise, and the final opinion can reach a consensus among many parties, which may be the best result.