Tencent will soon oblige Chinese users to present their credentials to play their video games

The Chinese group Tencent will soon ask players to prove their age and identity against criminal records, according to a new official statement released yesterday. In the new system, users will have to register their Chinese national identity in order to play all Tencent games.

The new verification system will be delivered to ten mobile games by the end of the year and to all games offered by Tencent, including Battlefields of PlayerUnknown and League of Legends, will get the system by 2019.

Tencent was criticized by the government Daily Peoplewho called Arena of Valor "Poison", after students have dropped their homework to play mobile gaming. Arena of Valor's the appeal was evident while I was in China; I saw young people in restaurants eagerly playing games while their friends and dates seemed to be bored.

Tencent also faced direct regulatory pressure this summer, after President Xi Jinping reported that too many children were nearsighted and the government was acting. Beijing has officially decided to ban the new games, which has created an unofficial break that began in March, costing Tencent up to $ 1.5 billion in revenue loss for lack of being able to launch the games. games that he had developed.

In September, Tencent imposed the new verification system on Arena of Valor and created a feature that makes the screen blurry if minors look at it too closely. The new system simply applies the rules put in place by Tencent since last year: to prohibit players aged 12 and under from playing for more than one hour a day and a curfew of 21 hours. Those between 13 and 18 can play up to two hours a day. Nevertheless, the system will not prevent minors from borrowing phones from their parents and other adults.

While Tencent had taken steps to reduce gambling addiction in the past, today's announcement is the biggest restriction it has ever imposed. China has nearly 600 million mobile players and, as the country's largest technology company, Tencent offers nearly 100 titles for mobile phones and dozens on PCs. This means that Tencent may have to control hundreds of millions of players with its new system.

The company, which owns WeChat and is one of the largest shareholders of Spotify and Snapchat, derives the bulk of its revenue from the video game industry. The price of its shares fell nearly 40% this year. Tencent was not immediately available to comment.