At the beginning of January, China announced the removal of the fourteen-year ban on all gaming consoles. According to the decree, companies will be allowed to produce the gaming machine in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. But, the content of the games could be censored if deemed inappropriate by the government. This is synonymous with why they allegedly banned consoles in the first place; the ban was supposedly aimed at helping protect young undeveloped minds.
Now two months after the ban has been uplifted, the Chinese government attempts to implement changes that will further ‘protect their children.’ A recent post on the State Council’s legal affairs website, proposed a ban on all video game advertisements “in textbooks, school buses, school uniforms, and programming geared towards children from elementary school to junior high.”
Now, these bans have not been officially passed; the proposal is up for ‘public debate’ on March 24th. However, recent reports from kotaku claim that these bans are puzzling because most video game advertising is not on television, but online. In fact, Chinese television is so heavily regulated that children programs are only on a few channels and these channels only show government advertisements or commercials that benefit the network owner’s business. Also, Kotaku further points out that textbooks and uniforms advertisement ban is weird because at this point there is no proof that these things have ever been used for that purpose.
Perhaps, this proposed set of regulations is the Chinese government flexing their proverbial muscles at the new gaming market. This is not the first time China has banned certain types of advertisements, but for the first time in nearly fifteen years, games will be allowed in China and the government wants control over the situation. Now, it is important to point out that along with video games, this bill will also ban all tobacco advertisements from the youth.
With this said, all of the new consoles are believed to launch in China at some point this year, but it seems that Microsoft has the edge. Microsoft has begun working with a major multimedia provider to distribute the Xbox One; however, release dates have yet to be announced.
What do you think of China’s new advertisement ban? Please comment below.