Tighter Chinese video gaming restrictions could impact eSports

Two of China’s state-controlled media – the People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency – have launched attacks on the video gaming industry in what observers believe is a veiled warning from government that it may consider tighter controls.

Reporting on the development, Forbes business noted that further restrictions could have wide ranging impacts on the $28 billion video gaming industry.

The People’s Daily focused on Ten Cent’s mobile game Honor of Kings, a runaway success that has hundreds of millions of fans, but which the newspaper characterised as “poisonous” and constantly spreading “negative energy.”

Xinhua called upon developers to deliver better content and more effective anti-addiction measures, suggesting that regulators should tighten controls over these aspects. The outlet expressed concern that games like Honor of Kings “distort” Chinese history by associating historical figures with fantasy virtual powers.

Tencent has already taken anti-addiction precautions, introducing systems which automatically log-off players under the age of 12 years after one hour’s play each day,

Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communications Law Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law opined to Forbes:

“China’s regulation of online games will definitely become tighter and tighter. By criticizing Honor of Kings, Beijing wants all gaming companies to shoulder extra costs for the social impact they may incur.”

Current company ID verification measures may not be enough, said an analyst at 86 Research, who claimed that youngsters can easily and cheaply obtain fake adult ID cards via the Internet. He estimated that between 20 to 30 percent of Honor of Kings players are under the age of 18 years.

Possible future requirements that could be imposed on gaming companies include the expensive deployment of facial-recognition technologies to cross reference video clips of young players with their national ID photographs.

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