The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) announced the approval of VALORANT in China. Meaning the game will officially be available to play soon.
China has very strict rules related to the gaming market. It worsened when the Chinese government imposed new regulations in late 2021 that allowed Chinese minors to play video games for only 1 hour on Fridays, weekends, or Holidays.
To add insult to injury, China’s regulators imposed a new restriction and slowed the approval of new online games in the country. Many people didn’t know, but VALORANT was also one of the games not approved in China. Until now.
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VALORANT Approved in China
On December 28, 2022’s announcement from NPPA, it was evident that VALORANT and 128 other online games were approved by the Chinese government. Among them, 44 games, including VALORANT are foreign, and 84 of them are domestic online titles.
However, if you check NPPA’s imported online games list, you may not find VALORANTas it is listed as “Fearless Covenant.” Unfortunately, Riot Games hasn’t addressed this; therefore, VALORANT’s official release date in China is still unknown.
Although it wasn’t approved by the government, it wasn’t illegal to play VALORANT in China. As a result, you can see many good Chinese teams, such as EDward Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix ZHUQUE, competing in the highest level of the VALORANT competitive scene.
Nonetheless, it is still a piece of great news for Chinese VALORANT fans as they will not have to use VPN to play the game anymore.
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