PUBG Mobile Is Asking Gamers Under 18 To Take A Break In Gaming, In Order To Avoid More Bans
For the past few months, we¡¯ve had the lawmakers, police, and even the general public going crazy over how addictive they believe smartphone games like PUBG Mobile are. Of course, it¡¯s bad press the developers don¡¯t want, so they¡¯ve decided to act.
For the past few months, we've had the lawmakers, police, and even the general public going crazy over how addictive they believe smartphone games like PUBG Mobile are.
Of course, it's bad press the developers don't want, so they've decided to take action.
The game's China-based publisher Tencent has reportedly rolled out a 'Gameplay Management' system for the popular game that will seek to restrict how much young users are allowed to play. Players that mark themselves as under 18 will receive an advisory when they start up the game, saying those under 18 shouldn't avoid over-engaging. They'll also reportedly receive pop-up notifications at intervals, indicating they should put down the phone and take a break.
"Our team wants to ensure our community is equipped to make informed choices when it comes to 'PUBG Mobile,'" Tencent Games manager Vincent Wang said in a statement. "It's our proactive step in ensuring that hundreds of millions of players worldwide can continue to enjoy 'PUBG Mobile' in a sustainable manner."
This new system is currently already in place in Indonesia, India, Nepal, the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It will reportedly also be hitting other markets in phases soon.
It's important to remember this isn't even the first time a Tencent game has been accused of being too addictive. The company already has a similar system in place in China, for its smartphone MOBA title 'Honour of Kings', as well as another game 'Arena of Valor'
In fact, the Chinese government has even provided Tencent with limited access to the national citizen database. That way, the company can verify a person's age the second they sign up for the game, to ensure they're not lying in order to bypass the age-imposed game time restriction.
This notification system for PUBG Mobile is obviously a lot less strict, more of a helpful nudge every now and then rather than a strict curfew. Clearly, Tencent is hoping it'll be enough to avoid more bans in the future.
