Chinese regulators will curb excessive spending and rewards that encourage online gaming, laying down the latest tightening measures for the world’s biggest mobile games arena.

Tencent Holdings slid as much as 6.7% while smaller rival NetEase dived 10% after regulators published new draft regulations online that also warned developers to store all data locally and avoid revealing state secrets in their content.

Beijing in recent years has sought to combat gaming addiction, blaming online entertainment for the rise of myopia among youths.

The government now wants to discourage high spending within online titles and will ban the use of rewards to encourage gamers to log on regularly, the National Press and Publication Administration said in draft rules on its website.

At the height of the tech crackdown, China’s government froze approvals for new titles and launched several investigations into content, forcing developers to modify certain games.  — Zheping Huang, (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP

Get breaking news alerts from TechCentral on WhatsApp