Centre likely to remove mandatory registration for non-money egames

Government is likely to relax gaming rules by removing mandatory registration for non-monetised games and easing compliance requirements ahead of new framework

The government is likely to ease norms for gaming companies by removing the mandatory registration requirement for social-skills-based games and egames that do not involve any upfront monetary transactions, senior officials told Business Standard.

An official said these games will also be considered “deemed approved” by the Online Gaming Authority of India (OGAI). 

“As long as there are no monetary transactions involved, most games should pass muster. Only if there are complaints or instances of unfair or illegal practices in a game or a gaming company will the authority look into it and decide whether to probe,” the official quoted above said. 

The new rules, likely to be released in May or June, will also ease other compliance guidelines. These include removal of norms to inform the OGAI of any “material changes” to the game, or minor modifications in the nature or offerings of the game,” another official said. 

“Now if they (gaming company) suddenly change the revenue model, there are chances of players not being completely aware about it and thus be at a disadvantage,” the official added. 

In October last year, the government had proposed maintaining and publishing a national register of all online social games, esports, and online money games, with a mandatory registration of all companies and persons that offer such games in India. 

At the time, the government proposed that OGAI would maintain the national registry for all such games, as well as the registration of such persons and companies. 

The gaming rules had then also proposed that once a game had been registered in India as either an online social game or an esport, the gaming company would be bound to inform the authority of any “material change” in the online game. 

These changes include any modifications to the online game’s features or a change in the revenue model, as proposed by the draft rules. 

Online social games and esports that do not inform the OGAI of such “material changes” can have their registration cancelled by the online gaming regulator, the rules had then proposed.