Chinese megacorp Tencent is shutting down one of its services that allows China-based gamers access to overseas platforms to play online games.
The service in question is an app that allows users to improve their internet speed to access games from overseas, as local internet speeds often do not provide a stable enough connection to play.
Tencent first launched the app in 2018 and other Chinese firms, such as NetEase, offer similar network accelerating services. The services also allow users to play games with overseas players on foreign servers.
As reported by Reuters, on May 31 2022 Tencent will provide an update to its mobile and desktop app that will mean the app can only support games that have approval to operate in China. After the update, users will no longer be able to access international games via the app.
No more access
While international games are not directly banned by the government through the use of internet restrictions, video games in China must go through state approval in order to be commercially available.
Although Tencent has not commented on the changes, the move follows ongoing regulatory changes from the Chinese government with regards to the access and availability of video games across the country.
Earlier this week, Chinese regulators ended an almost nine-month long games approval freeze and gave approval to 45 titles. Many claimed that the games licence freeze was a contributing factor to the closure of 14,000 studios last year.
Due to the size of the company, Tencent has remained under close watch, and often criticism, from the Chinese government and state-run media. However, the firm has stated in the past that it will be “fully compliant” with all regulations in the country.
Last year, Chinese regulators suspended Tencent from launching or updating apps from November 25 as part of a “temporary administrative guidance”, before reinstating these capabilities on December 24.
