China approves 15 foreign games, including Valorant: Operation Primal — mobile version of Riot's shooter
China’s National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) has issued a new batch of game licenses. As a result, 15 titles from foreign developers were approved for release in the country.
The NPPA granted publishing licenses to 15 foreign video games on June 5, SCMP reported. This brings the total number of approved foreign titles this year to 61, compared to 98 such products licensed in all of 2023.
The updated list, which can be found on the NPPA website, includes mostly mobile games, but there are also several console and PC titles. Below are the selected products:
- Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! — Nintendo Switch remake of Pokémon Yellow (the second game in the collection, Let’s Go, Eevee!, was approved in April);
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury — platform games from Nintendo;
- Ultraman Legend of Heroes — mobile game based on the Japanese media franchise Ultraman;
- Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage — mobile rhytm game developed by Colorful Palette and published by Sega;
- Black Desert Online — MMORPG from Korean developer/publisher Pearl Abyss;
- Samurai Shodown — mobile version of the fighting game by Japanese developer SNK;
- Railbound — mobile version of the puzzle strategy game from indie studio Afterburn;
- For The King — strategic RPG with roguelike elements developed by IronOak Games and published by Curve Games;
- Daemon X Machina — Nintendo Switch version of the 2019 survival game from Marvelous;
- Dungeon Hunter 6 — mobile action RPG developed by GOAT Games and published by Gameloft.
The main title on the list is likely Valorant: Operation Primal (无畏契约：源能行动), the upcoming mobile version of Riot Games’ multiplayer shooter. The NPPA approved the base game in December 2022 after ending a 263-day licensing freeze.
Valorant launched in China last july and became very popular among local players, generating solid revenues for Riot’s parent company Tencent. It is still unclear when the mobile version will arrive on iOS and Android, but its approval by the NPPA is a definetely a positive sign. But Riot has yet to announce the global release date.
Interestingly, the Chinese version of Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage will be operated by Nuverse, a subsidiary TikTok owner ByteDance. This comes shortly after the company announced the “second phase” of its gaming business. It plans to focus on making and publishing “fun games” after going through a turbulent restructuring.
