and 8 a.m., and restricted them from playing more than 90 minutes of videogames on weekdays. In 2019, the government banned users younger than 18 from playing videogames between 10 p.m. In 2018, China stopped issuing videogame licenses for almost nine months amid similar concerns, costing Tencent more than $1 billion in lost sales, according to analyst estimates, and leading to a prolonged slump in its share price. and “World of Warcraft" creator Activision Blizzard Inc. Tencent backs some of the biggest videogames in the industry and has invested in “Fortnite" maker Epic Games Inc.
It vowed to continue to do so as it “strictly abides by and actively implements the latest requirements from Chinese authorities." Hey everyone, I was toying around with the map editor, and decided to use the 'tree tool' and plopped down a good amount of trees. A state-media outlet this month triggered a selloff in shares of Tencent, China’s largest technology company by market capitalization, after it published an article that described online games as “opium for the mind."Ĭhinese leader Xi Jinping, too, has warned publicly in recent months about the perils of youth gaming addiction, remarks that have put more pressure on officials to act.Īfter the regulations were published on Monday, following the close of stock-market trading, Tencent said it had introduced a variety of new functions to better protect minors. Videogames have become a particular object of ire as Beijing seeks to reshape an industry it has described as motivated by profit at the expense of public morals. The measure comes as the Chinese government seeks to rein in China’s technology industry, a campaign that has ignited a trillion-dollar selloff in Chinese equities and hit a range of businesses, including for-profit education providers, ride-hailing services and e-commerce platforms. Monday’s new rule is likely to be felt through China’s online gaming industry, one of the world’s largest. In restricting videogame play for younger people, the government is seeking to “effectively protect the physical and mental health of minors," China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said Monday. Phone calls made to the National Press and Publication Administration went unanswered on Monday after business hours.
The announcement didn’t offer a specific age for minors, but previous regulations targeting younger videogamers have drawn the line at 18 years old.Įnforcement measures weren’t detailed, but in response to previous moves by the government to limit videogame playing by young people, Tencent Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest videogame company by revenue, has used a combination of technologies, automatically booting off players after a certain period of time and using real-name registration and facial-recognition technology to limit game play for minors.