China's new gaming laws and how it could impact NGS going forward.

[Hermit]

So if you didn't know, China are changing their laws on monetisation in video games and they will try and discourage people so they play less.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-issues-draft-rules-online-game-management-2023-12-22/

Key points:
Daily Log in rewards will be banned. So the daily rewards they give out when you log in will have to go. This extends to daily tasks and weekly, like completing 5 daily tasks to receive 130k Meseta. Or during events where you get things like tickets.

Spending for the first time or consecutively and receiving rewards will also be banned. So I would assume that this means that if you spend 90 days of premium, they would have to remove the rewards they often offer.

Games are now banned from offering probability-based lucky draw offers to minors. So this is AC and SG Scratches. Now the bit we don't know is if there is a way around this, like changing the age rating of the game. We all know that everybody ignores the age rating of a game though, so I am not sure this will be enough.

Data stored on Chinese servers. This would mean cutting Chinese players out of global altogether and moving them to their own server based in China.

There was more that featured in this article
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/china-to-ban-some-monetization-and-engagement-tactics-in-games

Players must be allowed to purchase items from loot boxes directly. So basically like the fresh finds shop we used to have in base PSO2.

If a game shuts down, all currency must be returned to player. So basically any unspent AC would need to be refunded in real world money if or when the game shuts down.


I'll point out again that this only affects China currently. It's interesting to see what direction NGS takes from here. Will Sega go to the effort of making adjustments to the game for Chinese players only, or will they cut them out altogether like they did with Belgium and Netherlands? There is even a chance that they make changes to the game worldwide, but I think this is highly unlikely.

[MekoNeet]

It only applies to minors though right, so couldn't they just say This game is for adults only? But then again china has that thing where you need an id to play games unless sega just starts asking the chinese for ID. But imo they won't do anything probably.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by 유진:

It only applies to minors though right, so couldn't they just say This game is for adults only? But then again china has that thing where you need an id to play games unless sega just starts asking the chinese for ID. But imo they won't do anything probably. :Ib_Ib:

Some things apply to minors only, but the majority of it applies to all Chinese citizens.

[Harmless Kitty]

Or you can like just add China to the list of banned micro-transaction counties like currently Russia and Belarus are.

https://steamdb.info/app/1056640/

But really, I don't think China is that much of the profit for SEGA - they are willing to ban China IP from the JP server well before the whole global version. Perhaps they can block China and you will see the monthly banned users go down.

[Prokaizer]

Who cares about China? Their country laws are ridiculous. They have policemen running around with courtains to hide protesters from the cameras. They put in jail people who complain about their salary and more. They get fined from their government if they say that they aren't happy.

[Tyrone Biggums]

just bring back pso2 NGS was a mistake

[Didaibr]

Hm, how the chinese mmos/mobiles will be affected I wonder

[Axelhander]

I actually agree with a lot of these laws. Dailies and the like are exploitative and encourage logging in not out of the game's merits but out of FOMO. Refunding items if a game shuts down is also something that would make these exploitative publishers second-guess their terrible practices, as would curbing the gacha nonsense.

[Rogue]

Just go back, old school for all online games. A giant lump sum of 70+++ bucks for entry + 20/mth SUBSCRIPTION FEES and pay for bi-annual expansion packs for 35++ buckaroos. You likey like?

FYI, chinese people play on japan servers... Doubt much with change for foreign entities like Sega. At most they ban the games from said country and the world continues to revolve. Psst, region lock is a real thing for a while now. China game companies, on the other hand, new ways to extract income, probably a derivative of first paragraph...

[Gilver Redgrave]

Good.
Wish those practices get banned globaly already.

That being said however i dont believe China will have a great impact on the global gaming market. Most Chinese games are mobile trash games anyways.

[Harmless Kitty]

Originally posted by Rogue:

Just go back, old school for all online games. A giant lump sum of 70+++ bucks for entry + 20/mth SUBSCRIPTION FEES and pay for bi-annual expansion packs for 35++ buckaroos. You likey like?

35 bucks for expansion lawlz,.. Diablo 4 charging another full game price of 70 bucks to 100 bucks deluxe edition for expansion.

Don't forget they will still have a cash shop to buy stuff directly like the first $15 shiny horse mount in WoW that made more money than StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty which took years to develop.

Old school sounds good and all but that ain't going to happen.

[Rogue]

Originally posted by Harmless Kitty:

Originally posted by Rogue:

Just go back, old school for all online games. A giant lump sum of 70+++ bucks for entry + 20/mth SUBSCRIPTION FEES and pay for bi-annual expansion packs for 35++ buckaroos. You likey like?

35 bucks for expansion lawlz,.. Diablo 4 charging another full game price of 70 bucks to 100 bucks deluxe edition for expansion.

Don't forget they will still have a cash shop to buy stuff directly like the first $15 shiny horse mount in WoW that made more money than StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty which took years to develop.

Old school sounds good and all but that ain't going to happen.

Really old school is you pay once even online games, that's it. lol.

It will happen, 70 bucks "base" game happened. loot box happened, whatever nonsense will eventually happen... Don't even get me to talk about the sims 4's "play for free"...

Remember kiddos, show me the money. Now you own nothing, and loving it. Yes, kiddos grew up and conditioned to accept the new "reality". Best to get'em when they are young and malleable. Oh the humanity.

[LeanivBirb]

I doubt they will cut ties,the Chinese market still huge in comparison to others

Still, Tencent lost in a single day over 50 billions in market value,and that is just fantastic

[Neosiotype]

Ugh, I'm eyeing that -30% off 10,000AC package. Rationally, I know that's the value of a brand new aaa title. And there's the Steam sale making it obvious too. Protect me China!

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

Who cares about China? Their country laws are ridiculous. They have policemen running around with courtains to hide protesters from the cameras. They put in jail people who complain about their salary and more. They get fined from their government if they say that they aren't happy.

I don't care, but it's not any of us that matters. They are a big market for game companies.

Originally posted by Rogue:

Just go back, old school for all online games. A giant lump sum of 70+++ bucks for entry + 20/mth SUBSCRIPTION FEES and pay for bi-annual expansion packs for 35++ buckaroos. You likey like?

FYI, chinese people play on japan servers... Doubt much with change for foreign entities like Sega. At most they ban the games from said country and the world continues to revolve. Psst, region lock is a real thing for a while now. China game companies, on the other hand, new ways to extract income, probably a derivative of first paragraph...

I would be happy to pay full price for a game and a monthly sub. It will force companies to focus on building games that entertain the player rather than relying on cheap tricks like making loot drop impossibly low and selling us the solution. They get away with releasing garbage tier content by making bank on microtransactions. If a monthly sub was required to access the game, these companies wouldn't be able to get away with creating content built around trying to frustrate the player into spending money. Try that in a subscription based game and players will just quit playing.

NGS wouldn't have made it past it's first year if it required a sub to play.

[Rogue]

Originally posted by Hermit:

Originally posted by Rogue:

Just go back, old school for all online games. A giant lump sum of 70+++ bucks for entry + 20/mth SUBSCRIPTION FEES and pay for bi-annual expansion packs for 35++ buckaroos. You likey like?

FYI, chinese people play on japan servers... Doubt much with change for foreign entities like Sega. At most they ban the games from said country and the world continues to revolve. Psst, region lock is a real thing for a while now. China game companies, on the other hand, new ways to extract income, probably a derivative of first paragraph...

I would be happy to pay full price for a game and a monthly sub. It will force companies to focus on building games that entertain the player rather than relying on cheap tricks like making loot drop impossibly low and selling us the solution. They get away with releasing garbage tier content by making bank on microtransactions. If a monthly sub was required to access the game, these companies wouldn't be able to get away with creating content built around trying to frustrate the player into spending money. Try that in a subscription based game and players will just quit playing.

NGS wouldn't have made it past it's first year if it required a sub to play.

What's there to get away? There were MANY MANY sub based mmo, all died or hardly existed except wow or a distant second FFXIV. Either you have a regimental style community where the guild is your life or there's nothing at all. Soloist is doomed. All this talk about getting away with crap, trust me, no one really do. FFXIV , wow, etc all have whiners about lack of content.

I'm waiting for ubisoft to make Ads driven games while you still pay full price. 6 secs ads that pop up once in a while or after or within EVERY loadscreen. lol.

Then there's the gacha "revolution". Also garbage. Some kids literally exhibit symptoms of a crack addict while asking more money from parents (or steal from them). The addiction overrides all garbage or content drought or rational thought...

In the end, you are you. Control your habits. Stop when needed, play other games or do real life stuff like read a book, go bar hopping, etc... You are happy to pay? Do it, there are many full subs games. Why are you still here? I don't like sweet food, doesn't mean I only buy spicy food so the market will no longer have sweet food. So many games, so many food. Subjective much? :)