The General Administration of Press and Publication of China (GAPP) aims to restrict the scope of activities related to in-game tokens. On Dec. 22, the GAPP published a draft of its guidelines for the online games industry, suggesting physical goods purchases and the exchange of game tokens for legal tender should be banned.
The guidelines contain 62 Articles and cover a wide range of issues related to the regulation of online games. It proposes some stricter regulations: the companies would have to obtain a license in China, store their customers’ data for up to two years, ensure that their content complies with a list of national and socialist values, and expel any opportunity for anonymous registration of users.
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Article 23 regulates the use of game tokens. It intends to ban the use of game tokens for buying physical goods, exchanging them for “products and services of other units” or “legal tender.” The latter point leaves room for speculation, given that cryptocurrencies don’t qualify as legal tender in China, and no specific mention of “crypto” is present in the guidelines. However, it appears the GAPP is trying to insulate online game economies from a tighter interchange with a real economy.
The guidelines also restrict game providers from offering induced rewards, such as registration or daily login bonuses. Providers must also set user recharge limits and pop-up window warning reminders for “irrational consumption behavior of users.”
The guidelines were published for a public consultation and do not hold legal force yet. The deadline for consultation is Jan. 22, 2024.
According to DappRadar data, approximately a million unique active wallets engaged in Web3 games daily over the past three months. Yat Siu, co-founder of gaming and venture firm Animoca Brands, anticipates that this number could surge by up to 100 million next year, according to a Dec. 17 interview with Cointelegraph.
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