Restrictions on video games in China are far stricter than they are in most other parts of the world. Even more so when it comes to minors playing games, something a top industry body in China has boasted about this week. It claims restrictions brought in to prevent children from being “addicted” to gaming have been a huge success.
CNG, the data provider for the China Game Industry Group Committee, boasted remarkable results according to a new report from Reuters (thanks, NME). The report claims 75 percent of children in the country are now following the new guidelines, a high enough number that the industry body now considers the problem to be resolved.
It is worth noting that despite the repeated references to minors in China having an addiction to video games, that isn't actually the case. It's a word the government has used while implementing new guidelines and restrictions on when exactly under-18s can play video games and how long they can play them each day. The restrictions include facial recognition technology locking minors' phones between the hours of 10 pm and 8 am.
As well as not being able to play games on their phones at all during those hours, children are also limited to 90 minutes of game time per day, another restriction made possible by facial recognition. Despite the restrictions clearly having the desired effect, the crackdown on minors gaming is very much a double-edged sword. Fewer young people gaming means China's video game industry now faces its first decline in 20 years.
Elsewhere in the Chinese video game industry, online support for a number of Blizzard titles is set to end as the studio's deal with NetEase nears expiration. To make matters even more complicated, all of the games going offline will need to be reapproved by the Chinese government before they're allowed to return should that window ever actually reopen. A process that can be pretty tricky for developers as only one Switch game had been approved at the time of the console's launch in China three years ago.