The version number was suspended, and the game industry was in a deep winter predicament
Seeing that winter has passed, the reality is still very cruel, and in the midst of expectations, the distribution of game version numbers still shows no signs of recovery. After seven months of suspension, a large number of small and medium-sized game companies still failed to survive this winter and had to retire. If this momentum continues, spring will come, and more game companies will continue to be unable to escape in the cold winter.
According to the data of Tianyancha, in the second half of 2021, a total of 14,000 game companies in China were cancelled, and this data was only 4,000 in the first half of the year, and the huge pressure brought by the suspension of game version numbers to the game industry can be seen.
Under the pressure of domestic supervision, small and medium-sized game companies seem to have only one way to go to sea, but this once wide road has obviously become a single wooden bridge, and most companies have not been able to go through. Throughout the year last year, domestic games achieved quite good results overseas, and Mihayou, Funplus and Tencent became the top three game companies in overseas revenue, in addition to many game companies also reaped a lot of returns. However, the overall good results still cannot cover up the cold winter trend in China, and most game companies have not been able to win a glimmer of vitality at home and abroad.
Version number, the root of a game
What is a game version number? Why would its suspension have such a big impact on the gaming industry? Will the suspension of the game version continue? For a time, many questions were raised in people's minds.
The game version number is actually the "business license" for the online operation of a game. According to official regulations, since July 1, 2016, all mobile games need to apply for a game version number to be online and operated, which means that without a game version number, it can only be tested, or the bold can also choose to "drive without a license" and wait for the regulatory ban before being fined a huge amount.
The real impact of the ban on game companies lies in the problem of revenue. According to the law, distributions without a version number cannot be sold or charged. This has caused SMEs to lose their ability to reinvest and lose the opportunity for long-term development. Small and medium-sized enterprises themselves have limited profitability, and the games they develop are generally short-lived, and if the revenue of old games continues to decline, and new games do not come out, enterprises will soon fall into a desperate situation.
Minors who are ruined by the game
When we understand the role of the game version number, we also understand why the official suspension of the game version number for seven months will have such a big impact on the game industry. In fact, although the difficulties of the game industry stem from the strengthening of supervision, the reason why supervision is strengthened is precisely because of the chaos in the domestic game industry. "Sooner or later, it is necessary to pay back", and the domestic game industry is experiencing its own "pain period".
According to the "2020 National Research Report on the Internet Use of Minors", more than 60% of the minors on the Internet are game fans, of which mobile games are the hardest hit areas, accounting for up to 56.4%, that is to say, every two minors who go online are playing mobile games. The survey report took a sample survey of families whose children were addicted to games, and the results showed that most of the minors who were addicted to games played more than ten hours a day, and 8% of them played for more than fifteen hours, which is a "devastation" that adults cannot afford.
Heavy addiction to games has almost destroyed important growth parts of minors' physical health, temperament, and interpersonal relationships, and this destructiveness will even have an irreversible impact on their future. What is even more frightening is that in order to cater to the needs of adults, many games often implicitly use "vulgar" and "violent" to increase "game fun". Minors lack the ability to identify, and parents cannot act as "humanoid supervision" all the time, so the situation of minors playing games is itself a dangerous behavior, not to mention addiction.
According to parents, children generally have a big change in temperament after indulging in games, are irritable and irritable, and say dirty words. What is more serious is that they have also become extreme in their behavior, some minors in order to recharge to buy skins and props, at the expense of stealing their parents' money, and even more, they will steal their parents' bank cards, online banking, and sometimes the amount is jaw-dropping.
Parents are more worried about their children's health than about the extremes of temperament and behavior. Skinny or obesity caused by irregular diets has become the norm, and some gastrointestinal diseases that do not belong to this age have followed suit. Excessive staying up late, lack of exercise makes the liver and gallbladder also have many problems, parents look in the eyes, pain in the heart. What is even more frightening is that the self-closure caused by long-term distance from interpersonal relationships and addiction has caused some minors to have mental illnesses such as "depression" and "irritability". From these underage families who are addicted to gaming, we can indeed see what some people say: Gaming is ruining a generation.
Regulation is imperative, and the gaming industry must be remediated
Minors indulged in the chaos of the game, and finally ushered in the savior: official supervision. On August 31 last year, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the "Notice on Further Strict Management and Effectively Preventing Minors from Addicting to Online Games" to limit the time for minors to play; and just the day before, eight departments, including the Ministry of Education and the State Press and Publication Administration, jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents", indicating that they would control the total number of online games and the number of new online games.
A series of official actions indicate that the high-pressure regulation of the game industry will continue. Many people ask when this deadline will be, and the author feels that it depends on the current situation of minors' game addiction, after all, solving the cold winter of the game industry is far less important than the healthy growth of a generation. (Bluegrass)
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