On the evening of April 11, the China Securities News reported that the domestic game version number finally ushered in a restart after the suspension of issuance in July 2021.
The report said that a number of game versions have been approved by the State Press and Publication Administration on April 8, including "Dream Voyage" of 37 Interactive Entertainment, "Party Star" of Heartbeat Company, and "Tower Hunter" of Thunder Network, a gigabit subsidiary.
In response to the above information, China Securities News said that it has obtained confirmation from the relevant company. As soon as this news came out, it caused shock and concern in the game industry.
"Hurry up", "Rush me !!!" "Tears", "Is it true, aaaah! Many people in the game industry and players have expressed their excitement on social media platforms, and even some players have begun to circle their own supported game works, hoping to be in this round of version number list.
According to the official website of the State Press and Publication Administration, the version number information disclosed by the above media has not been updated in the relevant pages, and the latest information is still published on July 22, 2021, and there is no new batch of lists published subsequently.
In fact, in recent years, the online game industry has experienced two rounds of suspension of version numbers in 2018 and 2021, and the two suspension cycles have reached more than 260 days, and the suspension of version numbers is often called a symbol of the cold winter period by industry insiders.
In the previous months-long version number shutdown in 2018, the game industry suffered a greater impact, and many listed companies listed the version number issue as one of the important factors affecting the company's performance in the relevant financial reports.
After the release of the version number resumed at the end of 2018, the supply of new games resumed, the industry users maintained positive growth, and the growth rate of the domestic game market has also rebounded.
The data shows that in 2019 after the version number was restored, the revenue of the domestic game market picked up by more than 10% in Q2 and Q3.
In fact, in response to the previous version of the suspension situation, some brokers pointed out in the relevant research reports that more focus is on the protection of minors. After all, around 2018, the game industry version number order is chaotic, chess and card and other special categories of games lack of supervision and other problems are more prominent, is not conducive to the promotion of minors anti-addiction and the healthy development of the industry as a whole.
Why does the version number have such an impact on the game company? This is because the compliance operation of online games often requires multiple approval certificates such as online culture business license, ICP license, software copyright, game operation record, game publishing record (i.e. version number).
Where the version number is the core of the entire approval process, the pre-requirements for ICP licenses and software copyrights. Because all online games must complete the version number application, in order to open users to recharge and pay, to complete the final revenue realization.
This also means that without the approved version number, the game can not open up profit channels, which is not difficult to understand why the relevant version number is suspended and the rumors are restored, which has a greater impact on the stock price of the game-related company.
In February, for example, a rumor about a game version number had a substantial impact on the game company's stock price without confirmation.
On February 21, some media quoted a number of game companies as saying that strengthening youth anti-addiction and continuous strict supervision of game themes such as wasteland, feminization, and beauty are not major negative factors in the industry, and no new game version numbers will be issued in 2022, which is the biggest bearish.
Or affected by this news, Hong Kong stock game related stocks fell collectively, such as Heartbeat Company fell 11.79%, Bilibili fell 9.59%, Kuaishou fell 7.29%, Tencent fell 5.23%, netease fell 3.77%.
However, it is worth noting that such negative news has not been confirmed by relevant parties. Zhang Junfa, the public relations director of Tencent, is suspected of debunking the rumors in the circle of friends, and said that "the person who shouted the heavy hammer has cancelled his own number".
Some media called the relevant departments of the State Press and Publication Administration on this news, and the relevant people said that there was no clear response, and they could pay attention to the announcement information on the official website, but they were still receiving the version number application of the game company normally.
Now with the restart of the new round of version numbers, the above rumors are not broken. Also based on the impact of the version number news on the share price of game companies, many industry insiders have also expressed optimism about the follow-up performance of related companies in the secondary market.
Produced by ZAKER News
Text / Zeng Xiantian