China has ordered video games to remove 'violent content' or anything that encourages 'money-worship and effeminacy' in its latest cultural curbs.
Share prices in gaming giants Tencent and NetEase tanked on Thursday after Communist officials summoned the firms for a meeting to discuss the new censorship.
Enterprises who flout rules will be punished, authorities warned.
Gaming companies have already been rocked by a recent law that caps gaming time for children to just three hours a week.
It's part of a broader culture war launched by President Xi Jinping on movie stars and big tech owners, as the Communist Party seeks to root out what it sees as Western influences and focus the masses on collectivism and industry.
Online shooter Overwatch published by Blizzard Entertainment is one of the biggest games in China. Tencent owns a 5 per cent stake in Blizzard
Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, is the owner of Tencent and one of the most recognisable faces in China's Big Tech sector
The Tencent share price slumped by more than 5 per cent on Thursday. It is down more than 13 per cent in the year to date after Beijing imposed restrictions on big tech, including a crackdown on how long children are allowed to game each week
Tencent and NetEase bosses were ordered that they must remove 'obscene and violent content and those breeding unhealthy tendencies, such as money-worship and effeminacy.'
An almost identical edict was given to show businesses bosses at a symposium hosted by Beijing on Tuesday, with party officials warning them to 'oppose the decadent ideas of money worship, hedonism and extreme individualism.'
The party last month attacked some of the country's most high profile celebrities over 'scandals,' including billionaire movie star Zhao Wei who was wiped from the internet.
Actress Zheng Shuang was fined $46 million for tax evasion, while Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu, who was arrested on suspicion of rape in August, has been thoroughly censored on the internet.
Earlier this year, Jack Ma, the billionaire owner of Alibaba ('Chinese Amazon'), vanished for three months after he criticised the country's financial regulations.
China sees celebrity culture and the pursuit of wealth as a dangerous Western import which threatens Communism because it promotes individualism rather than collectivism.
Among the new targets are media representations of men, which experts say are a cause for
