Chinese regulators approve paid games from Tencent and NetEase for the first time since July 2021, as part of granting 73 games licenses
Beijing gives nod to licenses as it gradually loosens crackdown on tech sector — HONG KONG — Tencent Holdings and NetEase, two of China's biggest …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the third license batch of 2022, but the first in which China's two gaming giants appear: April's first post-freeze batch and July's 67-title third batch both excluded Tencent and NetEase, leaving them unable to monetize new paid domestic releases for more than a year after the July 2021 freeze.
The freeze-thaw rhythm has precedent — the 2019 approvals that ended a nine-month freeze followed the same script. What matters now is whether including the big two signals a durably normalized approval pipeline or another calibrated pause in Beijing's broader tech-crackdown easing.
First-order effects
- Tencent and NetEase regain the ability to launch and monetize paid titles in their home market, closing a revenue gap on new domestic releases that opened with the July 2021 freeze.
- The 73-license grant restores a steady approval cadence for the smaller studios that received the earlier 2022 batches while the giants were left out.
Second-order effects
- With Tencent and NetEase back in the queue, smaller licensed studios face renewed competition for domestic player spending just as their head start on 2022 launches narrows.
- The approval reads to investors as the tech-crackdown easing extending beyond gaming, a valuation signal for listed Chinese tech names well past the two publishers named.
Third-order effects
- License approvals are functioning as a recurring policy dial — freezes lifted in 2019 and now 2022 — so what studios and investors will price going forward is pipeline predictability, not any single batch.
- If the thaw holds, the structural question shifts from whether titles get approved to how quickly, making the regulator's cadence a standing variable in Tencent's and NetEase's release planning.
The trend: Beijing is treating game-license approvals as a calibrated lever for signaling the pace of its broader tech-sector crackdown.