Teenagers in China will only play online games on weekends -apkrig
We have written several times on the Vortex about the regulation of playing time for teenage players in China. The conditions, which are set by state authorities and must be observed by all game developers and publishers in the country, have in the past led to a relatively drastic restriction in the field of online gaming. For players under the age of 18, this meant 1.5 hours of play per day, which was checked in the game through an account, during the registration of which it is absolutely necessary to enter the actual data and then verify them. It was not impossible to circumvent the rules, but due to the next steps and the complexity of the whole process, it seemed that the juveniles accepted the rules and there will be no further interventions. However, the opposite is true when Bloomberg describes another intervention, which reduces the current 10.5 hours to only three, divided into Friday and weekend.
China’s game regulator continues to implement targeted regulations aimed at curbing game addiction among minors
New policy states that minors can only play games for one hour on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 8pm to 9pm.
An extremely restrictive policy. pic.twitter.com/kkbh9PGsND
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 30, 2021
The article refers to the analyst Daniel Ahmad, who has been dealing with the Chinese market for a long time and provides an important context for understanding the specifics and laws of the country. Ahmad himself calls the new rules, which allow playing for one hour from 8 pm to 9 pm three days a week, very strict and explains that they affect approximately 110 million young players. Of course, provided that everyone reaches for online gaming, which, on the other hand, is an extremely popular industry, especially in the area of mobile gaming. The report also mentions that most of the rules apply to games from NetEase and Tencent, but these are, of course, the largest publishers in mainland China and the authors of the most popular titles.
On the other hand, the companies are unlikely to lose a lot of money, as Tencent, for example, says players under 16 only take care of 2.6 percent of total revenue. Even so, it is Ahmad’s amount that may be somewhere to see and reason to wonder why the authorities are acting so drastically. The intervention may discourage foreign investors, who, according to Bloomberg, should begin to return to Chinese stocks and seek suitable opportunities in connection with the end of the previous wave of strict regulations across many sectors. However, it seems that China wants to continue with them precisely in order to avoid monopolization of the domestic market.
For reference, there are around 110 million minors in China that play video games today.
According to Tencent, players under 16 account for approximately 2.6% of its total player spend, which shows the overall impact won’t be too significant, but it’s still a notable chunk.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 30, 2021
In the case of games, however, it is unlikely to be limited to another number limit allocated hours to play. As Bloomberg goes on to point out, online games should be gradually linked to the state anti-addiction system and should prevent the use of false data when setting up an account. Regulators should also tighten control over how gaming companies carry out controls and work with parents or school leaders to combat gambling addiction. The local media, which do not hesitate to call gambling “spiritual opium”, are also supposed to oppose the games, which had an impact on the share price and the movement of the video game market.
