From September, Chinese gamers will have to play under real names

The upcoming changes are announced by Abacus. According to the newspaper, the Chinese government is confident that children and teenagers spend too much time playing games instead of studying. Therefore, since September, the country has been introducing an identification system in video games using an identity card, which will filter out players under the age of 18 and impose additional restrictions on them.

Now a minor gamer will have no more than 90 minutes to play on weekdays and no more than three hours on weekends. And in the future, young players will also have a limit on the amount of money for in-game purchases, but the amount of legal spending has not yet been reported.

The country’s authorities are going to invite game creators to this system gradually. However, some game manufacturers have prepared for the new rules in advance.

For example, in 2018, one of the largest gaming companies in China, Tencent, imposed a “curfew” for minors and banned playing between 21:00 and 8:00. Also, children under the age of 12 received only one hour for games per day, and teenagers from 13 to 18 years old received two hours. Moreover, the company’s control measures are strict: in addition to the standard registration procedure, facial recognition technology is also used.

A year later, NetEase acted in a similar way. Its rules turned out to be a little softer than those of Tencent — the “curfew” became an hour less, and the game on weekends — an hour more.

So Chinese children had two years to find loopholes in the rules. Someone forges documents for this, and someone goes to the halls with slot machines. The most resourceful child managed to portray the voice of his grandfather in a conversation with the support service.

The gaming industry had no less time. These are not the first restrictions that she has to adjust to in order to work successfully in China. For example, publishers are required to undergo a content verification procedure and a monetization system, and only after that they get the right to legally distribute in the country.

Despite all the difficulties of working in the Chinese gaming market, it remains one of the most attractive in the world. According to the China Game Industry report, game sales in China for the first half of 2020 amounted to $19.9 billion.

Also on the topic:

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• The mother of a teenager who stole $20 thousand on Twitch returned most of the amount
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