Securities Times reporter Wu Zhi
In recent years, my country's supervision of game products has been increasing.
By 2021, the version number, real-name system, and anti-addiction system have become standard for the online operation of game products.
Since June, many provinces and cities have announced recent cases of penalties for illegally operating games, and the number of penalties has significantly exceeded the same period last year.
A reporter from Securities Times e Company found that there are still many games operating without a version number on the market, and many games have not implemented real-name authentication and anti-addiction requirements, and are operating in violation of regulations.
Under strict management, how can these illegal games be launched and operated?
The reporter found that a large number of "download stations" without supervision played an important role in it.
Penalize illegal games in many places
Recently, a case of game violation punishment in Shanghai has received high attention from the industry.
An information technology company in Shanghai has published 7 online games through the Internet without obtaining the relevant qualifications such as the game publication version number and approval document number.
The company's behavior violated the provisions of Article 27 of the "Regulations on the Administration of Online Publishing Services", and was imposed an administrative penalty of confiscation of all illegal gains and a fine of about 1.11 million yuan.
This is one of the most recent penalties for operating games without a version number, involving a relatively high amount of money.
According to the reporter's statistics, since June, more than a dozen provinces and cities including Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hubei, Guangdong, etc. have announced news of penalties for illegally operating games, and the number is significantly higher than the same period in previous years.
Like the Shanghai case above, the games punished mainly involved illegal acts that operated games without a version number, and some games were punished for not strictly implementing the protection measures for minors.
In 2016, the former State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television promulgated the "Notice on the Management of Mobile Game Publishing Services", requiring game products to go through the formalities of applying for a version number before going online. From July 1 of that year, games without a version number are not allowed to be published online.
In recent years, relevant departments have become increasingly strict with the issuance and management of game version numbers.
Under strict supervision, why are there still games online without a version number in violation of regulations?
Attorney Si Binbin of Beijing Tao'an Law Firm told the reporter of Securities Times · e Company that the reason why some games without a version number can still be seen on the market is that on the one hand, the number of version numbers is too small, which has become a scarce resource, and the version number is too small. The application cycle is unpredictable and cannot meet the actual development needs of the game industry.
Si Binbin said that there are still some small channels or operating platforms, based on the consideration of short-term commercial interests, taking risks and not strictly reviewing the launch of unlicensed games, which condone the online operation of unlicensed games.
Even in the name of "education" or "social" and other types of APPs, they are launched on the operating platform to avoid the review of the game version number.
Download station has become the hardest hit area
The application market is an important channel for game distribution.
At present, each application market has very strict requirements for version numbers.
The mainstream application market has clearly stipulated that the version number must be provided before game products containing paid functions are put on the shelves.
However, the reporter found that some companies specializing in application listing are taking various measures to avoid the review mechanism of the application market and become "accomplices".
"If there is no version number for the time being, we can help you to upload it first, but without the version number, it cannot guarantee success, there is a certain element of luck." A person who is engaged in the application listing service told reporters that he has had multiple A successful case of unpublished games.
"The success rate is uncertain. It may be successful at once, or it may fail a few times. It depends on the strictness of the audit."
Compared with the strictly audited mainstream application market and numerous software download sites, games without a version number are more concentrated.
The reporter learned that the games released by the software download station are usually uploaded by enterprises or individuals, or the station directly grabs the download package from the website of the game company and provides it to users for download.
Most of these platforms are not very professional, with weak review force, and basically do not conduct substantive review of game version numbers, which directly leads to the accumulation of games without version numbers on the platform.
Many unlicensed games even intentionally exploit this loophole to use these platforms as an important channel for promotion and operation.
Taking a website called "PC6 Download Station" as an example, the reporter recently found that among the 14 "hottest" games recommended by the platform, 9 of them failed to retrieve any version number information.
Among the 14 games recommended in the "Adventure Decryption" column, there are also 6 games whose version number information has not been queried, and some overseas games have also been listed.
"The mainstream app market will be more serious about policy implementation. But many small and medium-sized websites have a fluke mentality about supervision. As long as they haven't been found out, a day counts as a day." Shi Jiangang, co-founder of Apple App Store Service Discussion Jianghu, told reporters express.
"There are also capacity issues. For example, the Apple App Store is equipped with a professional technical team, and they are capable of implementing the existing version number policy. But if it is a channel that is not very profitable, they may not have such technical capacity. To screen the version number, or need higher cost." Shi Jiangang said.
There are a huge number of software download platforms on the market, many of which are operated by individuals, relying on search engines to divert traffic, and have long been in the blank area of supervision.
Previously, some games even faced penalties for operating without a version number, but the game could not be removed from these download sites.
In June of this year, in a case of punishment for a game without a version number announced by Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, the legal representative of the punished company submitted a "Situation Statement", saying that the company had applied for the suspension of operations on the game platform before the incident. Online games, but because the game platform did not handle it in time, the two games could still be downloaded and run on the game platform at the time of the incident.
Attention should be paid to the lack of anti-addiction
In addition to the risks of their own compliance issues, games without a version number also face higher risks of anti-addiction and protection of minors.
At present, the country has established a unified real-name authentication official system, and real-name authentication and anti-addiction have become the "standard" of mainstream game products.
However, the reporter found that this part of the function is generally lacking in the existing illegal games without a version number.
On July 17, the reporter continuously tested 9 games without a version number on the aforementioned "PC6 download station", most of which did not have real-name authentication and anti-addiction settings, and some games did not even require any account to use.
After some applications are installed, the mobile phone system prompts them as "risk applications".
"Games without a version number cannot access the official real-name authentication system, and can only establish a real-name authentication system by themselves or in cooperation with a third party. This unofficial real-name authentication system is difficult to guarantee the authenticity of the player's age and identity authentication, which may make A large number of minors entered the game and were subject to administrative penalties for violating the "Minor Protection Law", and such punishment cases are not uncommon." Si Binbin introduced.
In June this year, Beijing announced a number of illegal game cases.
Among them, the game platform operated by an information technology company in Beijing includes 6 H5 online games, which are illegal acts of providing online game services to minors from 22:00 to 8:00 the next day.
There are also online games that do not require minors to register with their real identity information and log in to online games.
Both companies were punished for violating the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors.
Compared with the stricter version number review, the major game channels have not put forward substantive requirements on whether game products are connected to the anti-addiction system, nor have they conducted substantive reviews.
This means that the improvement of real-name authentication and anti-addiction functions is more dependent on the self-censorship of game companies and law enforcement inspections by relevant departments, and there is a greater possibility of loopholes.
Sun Lei, a partner of Beijing Yuanhe Law Firm and an expert from the think tank of China Game Industry Research Institute, told reporters that in game products, the priority of anti-addiction and non-guarantee is much higher than other work, even if the issue of version number is not discussed first, implementation The real-name system and anti-addiction are also work that must be done for game products at the moment.
"Under the current environment, the number of version numbers issued is unlikely to increase significantly. If the version number cannot be obtained in the short term, at least we should use various channels to do a good job in the real-name system and anti-addiction first." Sun Lei believes that, Anti-addiction and obtaining a version number are actually two completely different tasks. "You can temporarily have no version number, but whether you open in-app purchases or not, you must implement anti-addiction."
Advocate for an orderly exit
The version number rule has been running for many years and has played an important role in the standardization and quality development of the game market.
The current illegal operation problems are mainly concentrated in a large number of small and medium game manufacturers.
The reporter learned that the reason why many small and medium-sized manufacturers did not take the initiative to apply for a version number is that on the one hand, there is a certain cost of capital and time in the application, but more is a fluke under the existing regulatory policies.
Judging from the public cases of actual administrative law enforcement, due to limited law enforcement resources, there are relatively few game cases that are actually punished.
In the actual law enforcement process, local governments mainly focus on accepting reports.
Generally, it is because the game is reported by users, or the game has bad content that attracts the attention of the regulatory authorities, resulting in administrative penalties.
In an interview with reporters, a number of industry insiders believed that the current regulatory policy is moderate, which not only leaves room for the survival and development of some enterprises, but also forms a deterrent to violations.
And game companies need to take the initiative to take more responsibility.
"From the legislative level, the supervision of game version numbers by relevant government departments has been very strict, and some game industry practitioners have even accused them of being too strict. I personally believe that strict supervision of game version numbers is conducive to the health and sustainability of the game industry. Development, the current supervision of the game version number is moderate, and the punishment is appropriate." Si Binbin said.
Shi Jiangang also expressed the same view.
"The implementation of the policy is not a discount, but a certain lag. At present, the number of games without a version number may still be relatively large. The policy level actually advocates everyone to withdraw gradually, which is more in line with the current state of the game industry."
"The current environment of stricter regulation in the game industry will not change for the time being, and the number and review speed of game version numbers will basically not change much. What companies can do is to try their best to comply with the game content; The addicted system and the protection of minors must be resolutely put in place. At the same time, the game content and potential risks in the operation must be dealt with in a timely manner, so as to operate legally and compliantly.” Si Binbin said.