Sun Shoushan, deputy director of General Administration of Press and Publication, has confirmed with local media that GAPP will initiate a program this year on green online game publication to guide the development of the online game industry.
Sun said that GAPP would conduct research to construct a measure for the program which may be carried out in 2010 and help advance China's online games industry to a new stage featuring green online games in about five years. Speaking of the development of the country's games industry, Sun stated that a breakthrough needs to be made in three areas to make China's online games industry grow bigger and stronger. He said that the first breakthrough should be made on thought, the second on market concept, and the third on themes of the games. Sun said that inner quality of games publications should be stressed to realize the healthy and sustainable development of China's national games industry.
According to Sun, GAPP will work closely with the Ministry of Public Security to push the certification of players' identities for the anti-Internet addiction system and promote the system among parents to protect teenagers' health and address the problem of Internet addiction.
Sun also stressed that though the administration encourages foreign companies to jointly develop online games with Chinese companies, it strongly prohibits these companies from online game operations with their own companies or joint ventures.
Sun said the revenue from China's online game industry has exceeded those from the traditional entertainment industries, including movie, TV entertainment programs, and audio-visual publications. In 2008, the actual sales of the industry were CNY18.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 76.6%. At the same time, it brought CNY47.84 billion direct income to the country's telecom and technology industries. It is expected that the sales of China's online game market will increase by 30% to 50% this year to between CNY24 billion and CNY27 billion, bringing CNY67 billion direct incomes to the telecom and technology industries.
Sun said the core competitiveness of China's online game industry has to been enhanced. By the end of 2008, the actual sales of China's self-developed online games had reached CNY11.01 billion, increasing 60.1% over the previous year, and the sales accounted for 59.9% of China's online game publication market.
Meanwhile, Chinese online game companies gained rapid development in overseas markets. A total number of 33 online game products developed by 15 Chinese online game companies entered the international market in 2008.