To retain Shanghai's leading position in China's computer games industry and strengthen self-discipline and legal construction of the industry, Shanghai has formally initiated the drafting of Shanghai Municipal Network Games Industry Service Standard, which will be the first of its kind in China, and is expected to be unveiled by the end of this year.

According to Ma Haiyong, deputy secretary general of Shanghai Municipal Information Service Industry Association, Shanghai's computer games industry achieved sales revenue of about CNY7.4 billion in 2007, which accounted for about 70% of the country's total, and the income was mainly contributed by the city's four mainstream computer games operators of Shanda, The9, Giant Interactive and 9you.

Ma says despite the rapid development of the computer games industry, there are still some apparent problems not to be neglected. Therefore, they will adopt measures to guide and manage member companies' games content and themes, and to limit unhealthy content that do harm to teenagers' mental and physical health.

The new standard is expected to bring a solution to the three core problems currently faced by China's computer game services, namely, inadequate client service, unequal user protocols and a poor settings of anti-addiction systems.

Computer game companies Shanda, The9 and 9you are said to have participated in the making of the standard, which is expected to be demonstrated to the public starting this week and released by the end of 2008.