China online games sector battles foreign domination ; Shanda, Netease, The9

From TheStandard: China online games sector battles foreign domination

"China's domestic online games publishers have declared war on foreign domination of an industry that is expected to be worth more than 10 billion yuan (approx. 1.3 billion US dollars) by 2009. ... Foreign online games companies accounted for 70 percent of those sales. ... . "

"Online games in China were once the preserve of foreigners, but a domestic industry began to emerge at the same time as online entertainment companies like Shanda, Netease and The9.
China last month ordered the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) to take the responsibility for regulating the online games industry."

"Apart from controlling imports of online games, GAPP will also implement policies to help domestic online games producers win a bigger market share by developing games on Chinese themes, he said. They would be encouraged to develop 100 Chinese online games on nationalistic themes in the coming five years. ... Now, only 10 foreign-made games per year are allowed into the mainland market. Last year, 30 or 40 were imported." Read more