|
MoC: Online Games Under Our Purview
Online games do not count as 'publications' and thus are the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture alone, while games distributed in hard copy form -- for example CD-based client-end data -- fall under the jurisdiction of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), according to a notice on the Ministry of Culture's (MoC) website posted September 28. The MoC has the sole right to punish companies operating online games without GAPP approval, the document said.
The document cited an industry insider as estimating NetEase's (Nasdaq:NTES) losses due to the suspension of World of Warcraft (WoW) server groups from June to be around RMB 50 million.
NetEase resumed WoW operations September 21, apparently before GAPP had given its approval, and submitted "Wrath of the Lich King" (WLK), the second WoW expansion, directly to the MoC. Previously, the central government had sent notices to MoC and GAPP delineating their respective responsibilities for online game publications, among other areas.
|
