China Restarts Video Game Approvals After Months-Long Freeze, Tencent Missing From List

China on Saturday approved the release of 80 online video games after a freeze on such approvals for most of the year.

However, the approved titles, listed on the website of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, did not include games from industry leader Tencent Holdings.

China, the world's biggest gaming market, stopped approving new video games in March amid a regulatory overhaul triggered by growing criticism of video games for being violent and allegations that they were causing myopia as well as addiction among young users.

Tencent Holdings's shares surged on Friday after the lengthy freeze in approvals had ended. Feng Shixin, a senior official of the ruling Communist Party's Propaganda department, said in a speech at a gaming conference in the southern city of Haikou that a first batch of approvals for games had been completed, according to a transcript of the speech and the organisers of the event.

That helped propel Tencent's shares up by as much as 4.6 percent, putting the gaming-to-social media giant on course for its steepest daily share price jump in over a month.

China stopped approving new titles from March amid a regulatory overhaul triggered by growing criticism of video games for being violent and leading to myopia as well as addiction among young users.

The freeze on new approvals has pressured gaming-related stocks and clouded the outlook for mobile games, rattling industry leader Tencent and peers like NetEase.

© Thomson Reuters 2018