Chinese authorities have limited the number of hours that minors can play video games per week to just three hours. The move comes amid growing concern in the country over gaming addiction.
Gaming companies will be required to restrict players under 18 to one hour of playing time, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Previously, the limit was 1.5 hours on most days. The new rules also require companies to enforce real-name registrations and link all online games to a state anti-addiction system.
“This ruling is the strictest one to date and will essentially wipe out most spending from minors, which we note was already extremely low,” said Daniel Ahmad, an analyst at Niko Partners. The country’s largest gaming companies have said that minors only account for a fraction of their business, with the largest pegging it at about 3 percent of its gross gaming receipts.
