China's Latest Step to Curb Games and Play Wallops Tencent
- The world’s largest gaming company slides more than 5%
- New rules came after China froze approval for games months ago
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China’s regulators plan to curtail the number of online games and discourage play-time, part of a broader effort to tackle device addiction and other ills that sent shares reeling from the U.S. to Japan.
The curbs were just one aspect of a swathe of edicts intended to address the health and growing incidence of myopia among children. But they come on top of a months-long freeze in game approvals, further muddying the waters for an industry that labors under one of the world’s most opaque regulatory regimes. Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Netease Inc. -- China’s two largest gaming companies -- both dived more than 5 percent.