Wired
The last day of 2020 is also the “limit” for submitting game version numbers. On Thursday, Apple removed more than 46,000 apps from the Chinese App Store, including 39,000 games, a record number. According to Qimai data, only 74 of the top 1500 paid games in the Apple Store survived. The “dead” games include Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed: True Colors” and many popular games such as NBA 2K20.
It is worth noting that Apple’s deadline for submitting game version numbers has been postponed several times before, the most recent being postponed from mid-year to December 31.
Chinese regulatory authorities have long required that all paid or in-app purchase games require a license before they are released. Since 2016, the major Android application stores have implemented this rule. But on the iPhone platform, unapproved games still exist for a long time, and Apple has only recently begun to gradually plug this loophole.
In addition, in recent years, as the country has tightened the distribution channels of game version numbers, it has become more difficult for game companies to obtain version numbers year by year. According to the domestic online game approval information released by the National Press and Publication Administration, the number of games that received version numbers in 2017 was 9,368, in 2018 there were 2064, and in 2019 there were only 1,468.
Hard requirements for game version numbers may cause more games to shift to an advertising profit model. Todd Kuhns, Marketing Manager of App In China, said: “Only games with version numbers can be put on the shelves, and the number of foreign game version numbers approved by China this year is very small, which is likely to cause more game developers to shift the profit model of Chinese version games. Advertisement Income.”