China Bans Foreign MMO Investment

The exploding MMO market in China is being cut off from Western economic influence as Chinese regulators ban foreign investment in virtual worlds. This Reuters report states that: "The new directive also disallows foreign firms from indirectly influencing Chinese gaming firms through agreements or technology support." This is a move which presumably has something do with predictions that the Chinese MMO market will be worth $3.5-4 billion this year. I wonder what the ramifications of this will be for China's game culture, and whether we'll see them having a rather isolated and unusual MMO focus like South Korea has done in the past.

Spotted over on VG247.