Overview of SAPPRFT’s Approvals of Mobile Games during Q3 2016
Since July, SAPPRFT has enormously increased its efficiency of reviewing and approving mobile games. According to the information released by SAPPRFT, it granted approvals to 110, 445 and 513 mobile games respectively in July, August and September 2016. Statistically speaking, it signifies a huge change in SAPPRFT’s administration regime compared with that only around 400 mobile games were approved in the whole year of 2015. Though most game publishers or operators have busily engaged in the preparation of applications after the promulgation of the Notice, it still seemed unrealistic for them to complete the application filings of all existing games by the end of Q3, the grace period granted under the Notice. Therefore, in late September, SAPPRFT proactively extended such grace period to December 31, 2016. This means the Notice will be fully implemented and applicable to all mobile games — the newly released and those downloadable and in operation—after January 1, 2017.
Simple Games and Simplified Approval Process
It came as no surprise that a vast majority of mobile games approved in Q3 2016 was subject to a simplified approval process that, according to the Notice, is only applicable to any mobile game that meets all the following criteria (“Simple Game”) (i) game copyright is owned by domestic individuals or entities, (ii) it does not contain any sensitive elements such as politics, military, ethnicity or religion, (iii) it has no storyline at all or only has very simple storyline, and (iv) it is in the genre of casual games including match-three, endless runner, top down shooter, board, puzzle, sports, music and etc. According to SAPPRFT’s latest practice, such causal game genre has been expanded to include fish catching, coloring, ejection (such as pinball), placement and simple block building games as well.
In addition to the simplified application documents and shortened review period, SAPPRFT has recently facilitated the simplified process by launching an online application system where application information and documents can be easily submitted online, moreover, SAPPRFT’s review and approval status are updated online on real time basis. After having taken these measures, SAPPRFT is expected to further enhance its work efficiency and approve more Simple Games in the fast track process, which may take around 15 business days.
Approval of Foreign Copyrighted Games
In contrast, SAPPRFT’s procedure for reviewing and approving mobile games that do not meet the criteria of Simple Game (“Non Simple Games”) remains unchanged, which is still quite complicated and time-consuming (4-6 months on average). This explains why only 10 out of more than 1000 approvals in Q3 are foreign copyrighted mobile games. The obvious mismatch between the number of approved foreign games and those currently alive in the APP Stores indicates a very tight deadline that many publishers or operators of foreign games must catch — if applications cannot be submitted before December 31, 2016, the game operations might be shut down.
It’s particularly worth noting that SAPPRFT currently adopts a very broad interpretation of “foreign copyrighted game” that not only covers games developed by foreign developers but also include those developed by domestic parties based on storylines, characters or other content licensed by foreign content providers. In other words, as long as the game content is not entirely owned or controlled by domestic parties, such game would be regarded by SAPPRFT as a foreign copyrighted one and thus would be ineligible for the fast track process. In this connection, disguising a game licensed by foreign party as a “China-made” one (such as to register game software under a Chinese party’s name) in order to take advantage of the simplified process does not seem a viable option.
— To be continued tomorrow.
※Prior to joining Broad & Bright, Tracey Tang was Senior Legal Counsel, Asia for Rovio Entertainment Ltd. – the creator of the globally famous Angry Birds franchise, and managed legal and regulatory aspects of its successful game operations in China and the Asia region. Email: tracey_tang@broadbright.com
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