Winter school holiday gaming limit is unfortunate gift for Chinese players from Tencent and NetEase
Tencent and NetEase won't allow underage Chinese players to play for long periods, and those trying to circumvent these restrictions will face unpleasant consequences.
Chinese players won't play for too long during holidays in Tencent and NetEase games.
As the Malaysian newspaper The Star (via Insider Gaming) noted, the South China Morning Post published a detailed review of the restrictions that will be in place in the People's Republic of China during the winter holidays. Just like before, the aim is to combat video game addiction (which the government once called "spiritual opium") among children.
Under these regulations, both NetEase and Tencent have committed to introducing limits for underage players, which in practice means limiting the total game time during winter holidays to several hours (for people under 18 years of age).
- In Tencent games, Chinese players under 18 will be able to play for a total of 15 hours from January 13th to February 15th.
- NetEase will allow minors to play for 16 hours during the period between January 15 and February 14.
This roughly fits into the previous regulations, which only allowed for three hours of play per week.
The article also mentions that Tencent is reportedly planning to enhance the system for identifying "criminals" and establish a database of "risky accounts," which are owned by adults but "lent" to children. Hence the requirement to verify the user by scanning the face, which NetEase has been using since 2020.