The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) appears to have regained or continued, depending
on the view, control of online game approvals. The recent submission of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King by
NetEase to the Shanghai GAPP bureau is standard operating procedure to getting
a title approved for content. Since it seems as though the battle between GAPP
and MOC has been subdued, we doubt that this game will be a political hot
potato as its predecessor The Burning Crusade was. Whether or not it will get
approved swiftly is another question altogether.
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The China
Publishing Professionals Association states that China still is short of about
600,000 game developers in demand to work in China. Many game development
studios have plenty of very young staff, but still lack mid level managers and
high level development talent. It will take a few more years to build it up,
but the sector has matured a lot in the past couple of years.
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Best Buy is entering more cities in China but the chain
store's product list is different than it is in the US, especially for the
games area. In the US Best Buy sells packaged PC and console games, and console
related products. In China, where game consoles are illegal, the store does not
offer those products of course. But they also do not offer packaged PC games,
which are legal to sale. The reason is probably that the volumes are so slim
that it isn't worth it for their business. It is difficult for consumers to
find legal games in China to buy at retail with the exception of independent
stores in computer malls. This is an area that has been victimized by piracy
but a business solution could exist - after all, more than half of Chinese
gamers like to play PC offline games. Why can't we figure out a way to sell
them to them legally?
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