Tencent Will Soon Require a Legal ID to Play Video Games

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We have learned that Tencent Holdings will start monitoring the play times of all players using their services to prevent gaming addiction.


The new report (via Reuters) notes the Chinese publisher will soon require all potential users to present a legal ID, which gets verified against police records. Pending their age, underage users will be limited on play based on their age. Those under 12 can only play for one hour a day, while “children 12 and over” can play for two hours.

A similar system was trialed on Honor of Kings in September, after already throttling player’s usage time based on age. Tencent announced via their official WeChat account that it will be applied to “nine other mobile games this year and expanded to cover all Tencent games next year”.

It has not been confirmed whether attempting to play up to or beyond the limits will affect a player’s social credit score – the scary and real dystopian surveillance program that tracks and possibly punishes your every move – including every purchase made. Other reports have claimed that China will throttle a user’s internet usage if they play games too much.

In other news, Tencent lost $20 Billion after China recommended fewer game approvals.


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Ryan was a former Niche Gamer contributor.


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