Gaming in China has been a difficult affair over the last 18 months, mainly due to the fact that the government has slowed down the approval process of foreign games into the country as part of its tightened grip on the industry. Fortunately, as of today, Chinese gamers now have something to celebrate: the arrival of 45 foreign games, including Valorant.
As you can imagine, the news has been well received, especially as Valorant – also known by its Chinese title, Fearless Covenant – broke cover on Weibo with a short gameplay trailer. This now means that after a long wait, Riot Games and Tencent can start marketing both the game and its competitive ecosystem properly.
Alongside Valorant, which is arguably one of the best competitive FPS games out there, the National Press and Publication Administration has also approved several other games like Two Point Hospital, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, Don’t Starve, Raid: Shadow Legends, and Pokemon Unite. You can find the full list here via Reuters.
This list, which also doubles up with the 84 domestic games approved this month, suggests that China is finally easing up on the industry restrictions.
We’re still a long way away from reaching the numbers of imported games from previous years, but the approval of a game like Valorant in a esports-rich country like China can only mean good things.
And with Valorant esports pros telling us they want to see more LANs in 2023, their hopes and dreams may come true sooner rather than later.