Honour of Kings to require players use real names to comply with new Chinese policies

Tencent is introducing a new system to Honour of Kings that requires players in China to register their real name with the game before playing, a step the company is taking to stay in line with new Chinese restrictions that seek to limit playtime for underaged players.

The company plans to implement the new policy on September 15, reports Reuters, and will check the names of registered players against China’s public security database to ensure that underaged players don’t exceed the playtime restrictions put in place.

Tencent also said that the same real name registration requirement will come to its other games in due time, though specifics weren’t given. 

The new government policies aim to combat the rising prevalence of the vision problem myopia, commonly called near-sightedness, in children. To that end, regulators are limiting the number of online games being released in China (something already seen through a freeze on new game approvals) and looking to implement a new system that restricts the amount of time children are allowed to spend playing online games.