If you did not know, the Chinese government stopped approving games for launch in the world’s largest country back in March 2018. This also include games from local developers. There were many reasons behind this action, such as the concern for game addiction, “inappropriate” content, and etc. 6 months after the stoppage, game approvals resumed and the civil unit in charge, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of The People’s Republic of China, recently revealed the first 80 approved games.
According to the list of 80 titles, there were no big titles, especially none for Tencent Games and NetEast, China’s largest game companies. There are 6 PC games, 6 browser games, 1 PlayStation 4 game, and 67 mobile games. Do note that foreign games cannot launch in China unless they have a local subsidiary (though they will still work with a local company), thus most will go through a local publisher instead. There might be a couple of big games with a localized Chinese name in the list, but so far none has stood out at all.