December 2023 Game Licenses Dropped on a Weekend — Speedrun Approval Cycle Sparks Heated Debate: Who's Really Sweating?

On December 25, 2023, a post about the latest batch of domestic game license approvals (版号, bànhào) dropped on NGA forums and immediately set the community ablaze. The OP posted a screenshot of the approval list — except it was so blurry you couldn't read a single character. The first reply nailed it: "Your image is basically potato quality." The replies kept piling on: "This is a whole nothingburger" and "Image is unreadable" — an inauspicious start, to say the least.

A hero in reply #4 saved the day by posting the official link from China's National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA). But savvy forum-goers immediately noticed the timing — December 25th, Christmas Day, a weekend. Anyone who follows the approval calendar knew something smelled off.

Reply #8 cut straight to the chase: "Translation: someone screwed up and now they're panicking. Announcing on a weekend, releasing approvals on Monday — anyone who actually follows the NPPA knows how abnormal this is." The "screw-up" they're referring to is the infamous Draft Online Game Management Opinion (网络游戏管理办法征求意见稿) that had been published shortly before, which sent Chinese gaming stocks into a freefall and shook the entire industry to its core.

Reply #5 dropped the most savage take: "One piece of paper wiped out one-fifth of the entire industry," complete with a classic reaction meme, adding "They beat everyone with the big stick, realized they might've crippled the patient, and now they're rushing to hand out candy. Last month's approvals were only 20 days before this batch — they're definitely sweating." But reply #17 pushed back calmly: "A round of domestic licenses at year-end plus a batch of import licenses is standard procedure. Has nothing to do with the opinion draft."

Controversy aside, this batch included some legitimately exciting approvals. Reply #10 listed the highlights: Echo of Abnormality (异象回声), Fire Ring (火环), Dual Realm: Link Point (双界：链接点), and Alien Land (异星之地). Fire Ring and Taris World drew the most chatter.

Taris World, an MMO, was lovingly dubbed "the WoW diet substitute" by reply #13, and reply #14 declared "the speedrun race has begun" — implying this World-of-Warcraft-flavored competitor had finally secured its ticket to the market.

Fire Ring's approval also turned heads, with reply #19 asking the real question: "So when is Fire Ring actually gonna serve it up?" Getting the license is just step one; players want to know when they can actually get their hands on it.

Not everyone bought into the conspiracy theory though. Reply #18 went full scorched earth: "A bunch of people grasping at straws, making up causal chains — 'approvals = regulators panicking over the opinion draft.' Whether the government is panicking is debatable, but some stock-market-bros are visibly sweating." They then asked the ultimate question: "Who exactly is simping for the trash companies that drag down legitimate developers?" This comment immediately sparked a fresh round of all-out forum warfare.

Bottom line: the timing of this approval batch was genuinely unusual, but whether it was a panicked political move or just normal year-end batch processing remains hotly contested. The only universally agreed-upon facts? The image was absolutely unreadable, and the arguments were absolutely unhinged.