Fast Growth in China's Videogame Market Creates Opportunities, Challenges for Foreign Companies

MEDIA ALERT

Today Niko Partners and TransAsia Lawyers issued highlights from an in-depth report that summarizes the regulations, policy and issues that face foreign videogame companies in China. The report, entitled: "China's Videogame Industry Regulatory Landscape," is available now from Niko Partners ( www.nikopartners.com) for $5,000 (US).

Highlights from the report include:

1. An overview of the laws governing online games, PC games, consoles, Internet cafés, and online game operators;

2. A breakdown of the laws put forth by the 10 main regulatory agencies, including the two most influential agencies with regard to regulation of China's videogame industry: the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) and the Ministry of Culture (MOC);

3. How to identify the disconnects between law and applied policy, and how these affect foreign companies trying to do business in the region;

4. A summary of the nine areas of prohibited content for games and rules concerning content changes to MMORPGs;

5. China's existing policies to develop a competitive domestic industry, which creates a much slower rate of acceptance for foreign companies; and,

6. Critical checklists for documents that need to be submitted in order to apply for content approval to be able to release a game in China.

Among the main considerations of the report is that the Chinese government is eager to support its domestic videogame industry due to the fast growth, which is projected to grow 25% a year through 2010. Niko Partners warns that even the largest corporations in the videogame industry who have tried to decipher the regulatory system in China have taken years to do so, and constant changes to policy make the task of navigating the system increasingly difficult. The report helps reduce the time to decipher the system and outlines the current policies, ministries, and people, so that all companies wishing to understand the marketplace are able to do so.

Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners, commented: "Some companies from the US may expect that the laws would be similar in China as they are in the US, but in fact they are much more rigid and complex."

For more information and to purchase the report, please contact:

Lisa Cosmas Hanson

P: 408-354-0888

lisa@nikopartners.com

For media inquiries, please contact:

Eric Gonzalez

Kohnke Communications (on behalf of Niko Partners)

P: 212-730-9744

eric@kohnkecomm.com