The turn of the screw leaves a bitter taste to Chinese players.
Or, at least, to underage players.
Already targeted by strict regulations that prohibit those under 18 from playing online between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., the youth of the Middle Kingdom is now subject to a new restriction limiting the daily playing time of young Chinese.
This will now be restricted to one or two hours - depending on the day - on the flagship multiplayer title of the moment,
Honor of Kings
.
A draconian new deal that is difficult for teenagers most keen on the game.
Read also: With facial recognition, Tencent will prevent Chinese children from playing video games in the middle of the night
Introduced by Tencent, the Chinese video game giant, this regulatory tightening aims to fight against the addiction of young people to digital entertainment. It comes at least a few days after the publication, in early August, of a vitriolic article in an official economic daily. Pinpointing Tencent and its hugely popular online game
Honor of Kings
, the article considered video games to have become
"a mental opium".
Under pressure, the group, which already imposed limits on playing time and facial recognition to prevent under-18s from playing at night, has therefore further tightened its rules in a context where - fearing the tide will turn - the Stock market investors shed the stocks of the giants of the sector (Tencent, NetEase, Bilibili), causing prices to plunge for a while.
"I want to cry"
Designated as a
"measure for the protection of minors"
, the new rule thus reduces the playing time of under-18s on
Honor of Kings
to one hour per day on weekdays, during school periods, and to two hours during holidays and week ends.
After the allotted time, the game is locked.
"We hope we can help minors develop healthy play habits, and we are doing our best to reduce family problems arising from children's play activities
,
"
the Chinese giant said in a statement.
I'm on vacation.
I have nothing else to do and I only have the right to play for a little while
Li, 17 years old
For many young Chinese, this new measure goes too far.
“I want to cry,”
says Zhang Yuchen, 14. In the middle of summer vacation, the young boy feels lost without his favorite pastime, a feeling shared among the most fervent players of the game.
“I'm on vacation. I have nothing else to do and I only have the right to play for a little while, ”
plague Li, 17, who declined to give his full name. The young girl considers the measure
"distressing"
, believing that adolescents of her age, almost of age and therefore more responsible, can limit their playing time on their own. Other minors affected by the new measure have found a solution. Workaround at Tencet's increased control:
"Using an adult's account, I play two to three hours a day and of course after 10 pm
", laughs a 17-year-old player who wishes to remain anonymous.
To read also: Video games: the insatiable appetite of the Chinese ogre Tencent for the studios
Developed by TiMi Studio Group, the studio behind
Call of Duty: Mobile
and
Pokémon Unite
,
Honor of Kings
is an arena battle game (also referred to by the acronym of Moba Games, for
"Multiplayer Online Battle Arena "
), Like
League of Legends
. Much less known in the West than in Asia, the title is the most played video game in China with more than 100 million daily active users. According to figures cited by the
South China Morning Post
, the game would have generated $ 2.6 billion in profits in 2020. Under-16s would generate only 6% of purchases, according to Tencent.
Pekingese walk past a statue of Mario, the darling of Japanese giant Nintendo, in July 2021. The video game sector generated 17 billion euros in sales in China, for the first half of 2021 alone. Noel Celis / AFP
Fight against addiction and myopia
Was the frantic reaction of the markets to the article in the official press justified?
“The stock market investors overreacted and it packed the media machine
, said Ether Yin, analyst at Trivium China.
It's been since 2018 that the government wants to prevent children from becoming addicted to games, ”he
notes, stressing that this trend is not really new.
According to him, other video game companies are also expected to publish their own restrictions in the coming weeks.
To read also: China: the "tax advantages" of video games in the crosshairs
Tencent's new rules also took unexpected victims: some parents themselves, who loved to play with their children. Holder of an adult account for
Honor of Kings
, Peng Jianfei, a 45-year-old programmer, had given permission to his 12-year-old son to use it during his school holidays. But a request for age verification appeared, and the boy, without thinking, entered his ID number - which immediately locked the account. Result: even the dad can no longer play.
"These measures can to a certain extent reduce the playing time of minors,"
concedes Peng Jianfei.
"But for now
" this concerns only one game from Tencent and
"You can always get around it by playing"
on other platforms, he emphasizes.
Most parents welcome the new restrictions, however.
“If the kids spend too much time playing, it will be bad for their eyesight,”
said Wang, a 34-year-old Beijing woman. But her 10-year-old son, who pulls her by the arm, does not share her opinion at all.
"Mom, it must be said that it is a bad decision! Why are they doing this to us? ”
The overexposure of young people to screens has long been criticized in China for its negative consequences on health: reduced vision, impact on school results, lack of physical activity or risk of addiction. In 2017, Tencent had already restricted access to
Honor of Kings
for children under 12. Sign of the weight of video games in this country of 1.4 billion inhabitants: they generated 17 billion euros in turnover in the first half of 2021 alone.