Gaming stocks take a critical hit over China's new rules. Hello and you're listening to the

Marketplace's morning report live from the BBC World Service. I'm Leanna Byrne and a very good morning to you.

China has just announced new plans to restrict the online gaming industry

which has wiped nearly $80 billion in market value

from China's two biggest gaming companies,

10 cent and net ease.

New draft restrictions are aimed at limiting in-game purchases and

compulsive playing behavior.

For more on the story, let's hear from the BBC's Monica Miller in Singapore.

Hello, Monica. Hello, Monica, can you just provide us a brief overview

of the key points outlined in these draft restrictions?

Yeah, well, this is basically Beijing officials

trying to raid in what they see as a growing trend of gaming addiction, particularly among young people.

So what these new rules require are online games to set spending limits.

Also, in-game measures that would incentivize high spending,

for example, giving them money basically for every time they log in.

All of that's going to be banned.

Plus, a lot of the software is going to require pop-ups

that warn of irrational playing behavior depending on how long you've been on one of these games.

This is a massive blow to the world's biggest games market which really just returned to growth not too long ago.

I mean they're obviously concerned enough about people's gaming habits that they're

introducing these restrictions and I mean, are they that bad?

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