Tencent Holdings interests jumped by as much as 4.2 percent on Friday after a regulatory official said that some new games keep been cleared for sale after a lengthy freeze in approvals.
Feng Shixin, a senior official of the ruling Communist Knees-up’s Propaganda department, said in a speech at a gaming conference in Haikou on Friday that a first batch of approvals for designs had been completed, according a transcript of the speech and the organizers of the event.
China, the world’s biggest gaming market, stopped approving new denominates from March amid a regulatory overhaul triggered by growing criticism of video games for being violent and influential to myopia as well as addiction among young users.
The freeze on new approvals has pressured gaming-related stocks and clouded the slant for mobile games, rattling industry leader Tencent and smaller peers.
“We hope through new system design and basic implementation we could guide game companies to better present mainstream values, strengthen a cultural sense of deference and mission, and better satisfy the public need for a better life,” Feng said.
Earlier this month, phase media reported that Chinese regulators set up an online video games ethics committee, raising hopes the command was preparing to resume an approval process that has been frozen for most of this year.
“This is clearly overwhelming news for China’s gaming industry,” a Tencent spokesman said in written comments.
“We’re confident that after the spread about license approval, we will provide more compliant, high-quality cultural works to society and the public.”
The gaming freeze-up in China has dragged down Tencent’s shares this year and wiped billions of dollars of its market value. The Hong Kong-listed decisive’s stock is down around 23 percent this year.