China approves 73 games including ones belonging to NetEase and a Tencent subsidiary

HONG KONG, Sept 13 (Reuters) – China's gaming regulator granted publishing licences for 73 online games on Tuesday, including titles belonging to NetEase Inc (9999.HK) and other developers.

NetEase, China's second largest gaming company behind Tencent, received its first video game licence in 14 months for a sports game titled "All-star Street Ball Party", the list published by the National Press and Public Administration showed.

Shares of NetEase, which also trade in New York, rose by more than 3% in pre-market trading.

Nanjing Wangdian Technology，a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), has also received a licence for an educational game called Health Protection War.

Chinese regulators did not approve any commercial game for Tencent, the world's biggest game developer and operator of the WeChat messaging platform.

China suspended game approvals last August before resuming them in April. Tencent has yet to receive an approval for the big hits it has in its pipeline since the suspension ended.

Developers including XD Inc (2400.HK) and CMGE Technology Group (0302.HK) also received licences.

Reporting by Josh Ye in Hong Kong, Ella Cao in Beijing and Twinnie Siu in Hong Kong; editing by Andrew Heavens, Jason Neely and David Evans

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source:www.reuters.com