China’s tightened playing restriction for young video gamers may ruin country’s esports ambitions

The latest restriction would make it nearly impossible for the country’s esports sector to form and train groups of players under the age of 18
China’s esports market revenue is projected to surpass US$25.5 billion this year

Esports

Josh Ye

Published: 7:01pm, 1 Sep 2021

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China’s new three-hour weekly video gaming restriction for players aged under 18 could potentially kill the country’s ambition to become a global powerhouse in esports, experts warned.

The National Press and Publication Administration, China’s top watchdog for gaming and other forms of online media, issued on Monday a new rule limiting gaming time for players under 18 to between 8pm and 9pm only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays.

That would make it nearly impossible for the country’s esports sector to form and train under-18 groups of players, as well as sustain its growing domestic fan base. The restriction comes as esports will make its debut as an official medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China’s Zhejiang province.

The latest restriction is not only expected to disrupt, but potentially damage the development of esports in mainland China, according to Warren Lee, technical director at esports company Hexing Global.

“Under this new regulation, there is pretty much zero chance to train the next generation of [esports] competitors,” Lee said. “Personally, I can’t imagine what this means for [esports] team owners in China right now.”

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The stakes are high for China in esports, a market with projected revenue surpassing 165.1 billion yuan (US$25.5 billion) this year. That includes income generated from games, tournaments and merchandising.

In esports, 18 is already considered a mature age for a player because most participants consider retirement early in their 20s. It is uncertain whether the Chinese government will make special arrangements for certified under-18 esports players to get sufficient training time.

The average age of China’s national team was around 20, according to state news agency Xinhua, during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia, where esports was a demonstration sport. That team’s top player, Jian “Uzi” Zihao, started his esports career at age 15 and retired at 23 last year.

On China’s tightened gaming time for young players, LightStream Research founder Mio Kato said he expected esports in the country to be hit hard, according to a piece he wrote on global investment research network Smartkarma.

“It is like restricting Manchester United’s academy squad to three hours of practice time spread over three specified days a week,” Kato said.

Before the increased regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech companies and the domestic internet industry as a whole, a number of major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, vied to become the country’s main esports hub. Beijing, for example, launched an ambitious initiative called “Esports Beijing 2020” to provide major subsidies to teams, arenas and video games that promote local culture.

The annual League of Legends World Championship, the esports industry’s most popular international tournament, was held last year in China, where gamers outnumber the US population.

China has about 400 million esports consumers, 70 per cent of which are under 35, according to a report by Tencent Holdings and Nielsen. It also said there were 26 million new esports consumers last year, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

At the Global Esports Leaders Summit held in August last year at Bo’ao, a town located next to the eastern coastal city of Qionghai in Hainan province, Tencent said that its Honour of Kings World Champion Cup 2020 finals in Beijing held that same month attracted 570 million viewers and that more than 3 million people took part in various levels of the tournament.

Despite the latest playing time restriction for young people, organised esports programmes in schools could help train new players, according to John Oliverius, president of Verius Ventures, a company focused on media rights, content licensing and international broadcast production. “If schools and cities have the authority to allow organised esports, that could go a long way towards solving the problem [about gaming limits for young players],” he said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Restrictions could ruin China’s esports ambitions

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