Chinese Government approves Valorant alongside several international games

Chinese Government approves Valorant alongside several international games

On December 27, China’s video games regulator approved 84 domestic games and 45 international games for release in the nation, including seven games from South Korea, further easing the industry’s 18-month-long struggle with strict restrictions. Riot Games‘ Valorant,  Nintendo’s Pokémon Unite, and CD Projekt Red’s Gwent: The Witcher Card Game were also among these 45 approved games. Many western game creators, including Blizzard, have done all in their power to establish (or tighten up) their presence in China, which is a tremendously lucrative market for the gaming business. The reinstatement of approvals implies that developers can expand their footprint across the nation.

The Chinese government is very strict about what content can and cannot be aired on its soil, especially since it restricted access to video games in 2021. At that time, the media was viewed as the “opium of the mind” for young people. Minors were only allowed to play for a maximum of one hour on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

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However, even if video games themselves aren’t always well-liked, the esports industry is thought to be in good health. This is an excellent illustration of a game that can help a nation become more well-known abroad. Chinese teams have demonstrated their value in professional competition by dominating their rivals in the VCT Asian LCQs, such as EDward Gaming. Their performance in VCT Champions was also commendable.

Related: How to enable HRTF settings in Valorant?

Valorant officially lands in China

Valorant Arrives in China
Valorant (Image via Riot Games)

Since its debut in the summer of 2020, Valorant has been a resounding success. Despite various difficulties, such as smurfing, the game consistently ranks among the top games played worldwide. With the game scheduled for release in the Chinese market, participation may soon surge as well. It took a very long time, but Riot Games’ publisher Tencent has now successfully validated Valorant in China. Soon, the game will have proper servers and a real follow-up in the Middle Kingdom. The game will be available to download via Tencent’s game launcher.

Some people have tried to take advantage of this delay by developing a barely cloaked copy of Valorant in an effort to establish a presence in the market. The closest is Project M, a product of NetEase, which modifies the agents and maps stylistically. Interestingly, it was available on mobile rather than on PC.

Naturally, we may anticipate a huge flood of players, but CrossFire remains a formidable challenge. For more than ten years, China’s most played competitive game has been this Counter Strike clone. It will be interesting to see if Riot games manage to enact Valorant in the player since Valve failed to do the same with CS: GO.

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