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Tencent is killing 32 games for failing to prevent gaming addiction

Tencent is removing 32 games because they can’t be integrated into its “health system” that’s designed to prevent too much gaming for underage players

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Tencent and other gaming companies have been under pressure to limit how much time underage users spend on games. (Picture: Florence Lo/Reuters)
Josh Ye
This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Tencent says it's removing 32 games at the expense of profit because they fail to prevent gaming addiction. 

China has been cracking down on underage game addiction in recent years. A new law issued last month stated that underage gamers are banned from playing games for more than 90 minutes each day. 

To cooperate with authorities, Tencent has been rolling out what it calls a “health system” for its games to monitor playing time of underage gamers. The Chinese gaming giant recently announced that 32 of its games can’t be integrated into the system, citing technical reasons, and will therefore be removed from the market. 

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The company didn’t specify which games will be terminated, but it said 116 mobile games and 31 PC games have been integrated into the system. So far, the system appears to be effective. Tencent said gamers under 13 years old are spending 59.8% less time playing Honor of Kings, the company's most popular game that's known as Arena of Valor overseas.

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