How to get your game published in China in 2025

Launching a game in China is not like releasing elsewhere, with a number of explicit rules and a lengthy time of upwards of a year to release.

Speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona, MyGamez CRO Thorbjorn Warin ran through the rules of getting published in the country and the challenges developers might face.

To publish a game in China:

• All games require a government-issued ISBN.
• An ISBN is only issued to Chinese companies.
• Ergo: Only Chinese companies can publish.

Warin said six to eight years ago, the mobile market was more of a free-for-all, where publishers could launch a game without these restrictions being enforced. However, before the pandemic, China became more focused on content control and making sure games are compliant with its values, rules and regulations.

There are also more general IT regulations publishers and all companies in China must follow:

• All user data must be stored within China.
• Data must not be exported outside China – Exporting data that contains personally identifiable information is strictly forbidden.
• Data can’t be accessed from outside China – This is a bit of a gray zone and is currently not something being enforced, but it is a theoretical and potential issue.

“You’ve got to think on your feet when you’re in China,” said Warin, when it comes to compliance with these rules.

In order to get an ISBN, games are reviewed and checked for:

• RID & Anti-addiction – This involves identifying players spending too much money and/or time in games. It’s not really strictly enforced, but it’s there.

• Content compliance

• This covers traditional Chinese culture and superstitions, as well as not promoting ‘amoral’ values. 

• This is a long list of criteria, though for some games it’s not a problem at all. Titles like Candy Crush Saga and Royal Match will not have notable issues. But for a game like Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto, “forget about it”.

• Warin highlighted two examples of the restrictions, which included: Games cannot have a character with a visible scar on their face. Characters are also not allowed to have red eyes.

• Warin said developers virtually never need to change core gameplay to get an ISBN, as the changes tend to primarily be cosmetic.

• Chat, UGC and user safety check 

• Chat needs to be very heavily moderated. For example, users can’t say Taiwan is a country. 

• For UGC, there needs to be checks and controls on content. In China, the company that publishes the game is responsible for everything in the game.

When it comes to a publishing partnership:

• A local partner in China is required – There is no other sustainable way to operate a game in the country.
• Source code hand-over – Developers find a partner, get a minimum guarantee, then hand over the source code and they run it in China.
• Other challenges can include payments, taxes and transparency.

Warin said while there are these challenges, it has become somewhat faster to get a game approved and released in China.

While a few years ago it could take as long as two years to gain approval and launch, time-to-market can now realistically be completed in nine to 12 months, with an ISBN approved in six.

Pocket Gamer Connects is heading to Shanghai, China on July 30th, 2025.