China’s Tencent will soon require gamers to prove their ages and identities against police records, according to a new official statement yesterday. Under the new system, users will need to register their Chinese national IDs in order to play any games from Tencent.
Ten mobile games will get the new verification system by the end of the year, and all games offered by Tencent, including PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and League of Legends, will get the system by 2019.
Tencent has been criticized by state-run People’s Daily, which called Arena of Valor “poison,” after reports that students were ditching their homework to play the mobile game. Arena of Valor’s appeal was evident while I was in China; I witnessed young people at restaurants...
