Chinese Government Monitoring Online Games

After some MMOG's were found with banned religious and political materials, the government of China is keeping a closer eye on the growing online games market.

In a country where running an adult entertainment site can land you life in prison, MMO developers have to be very careful when making games for the growing Chinese market.

With more than 23 million online gamers generating $850 million a year, the growing segment of online gamers is a concern for the Chinese government. After a game was discovered to have banned materials in it, China is now requiring that all games obtain approval from the government before launching and submit monthly monitoring reports.

According to Xinhua, the latest enforcements were also prompted by "a rash of problems with imported online games, some of which contain sensitive religious material or refer to territorial disputes."

Chinese officials also claim publishers were concealing banned content and adding it in with patches after the game launched.

Source: BBC