Advertisement
Tencent
TechBig Tech

Tencent in a quandary about verification workarounds as 60-year-old player scores lofty Honour of Kings feat

  • Tencent’s investigation has failed to determine if a 60-year-old player’s account is controlled by a minor
  • While China has some of the world’s strictest gaming regulations, kids have been known to find creative workarounds to play their favourite games

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
5
New rules issued by China’s gaming watchdog, the National Press and Publication Administration, limits game time for players aged under 18 between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. Photo: SCMP
Xinmei Shen
Tencent Holdings, which runs the world’s biggest video gaming business by revenue, said it cannot ascertain if a player has cheated its facial recognition system to get around age restrictions, as Beijing ratchets up the pressure on the industry to tackle gaming addiction among minors.

The company’s admission followed its investigation of a 60-year-old gamer – born in 1961, based on the person’s national identification number – who played its flagship mobile game Honour of Kings at 3am earlier this week and achieved a lofty “penta kill”, a phrase that describes a streak of killing five opponents in a row.

While that gamer’s feat was widely circulated by amused online users in China’s social media, it prompted speculation that the person’s account must have been used by someone much younger to get around the country’s strict age restrictions for playing video games.

On Thursday, Tencent said in a statement on microblogging platform Weibo that it had investigated the account for three days. The company found that the player triggered and passed the game’s facial recognition verification system 17 times since March this year, and that the person’s face matched what was on the police database.

The Shenzhen-based internet giant said it could not determine if another player had asked the 60-year-old person’s help to pass the game’s facial recognition system. The company also said it does not have jurisdiction to investigate beyond its own back-end data.

01:09

China reportedly slows down online game approvals as crackdown on video game addiction continues

China reportedly slows down online game approvals as crackdown on video game addiction continues

This latest development shows the increased pressure on video game companies amid Beijing’s heightened scrutiny of the industry and stringent new measures to reduce gaming addiction in minors.

Advertisement