Honor of Kings is one of Tencent's big hits.
Honor of Kings is one of Tencent's big hits.
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China’s regulators restrict game monetization, sending Chinese game stocks down

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

China has been tough on games in recent years and its regulators have now cracked down on monetization, sending the market value of both Tencent and NetEase downward.

Reuters said the new rules limit spending by players on online games and institute a ban on daily login rewards, first-time purchase bonuses and any incentives game developers create for repeat spenders. This comes amid a slowdown in the game industry and layoffs by many companies.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.