Billions of dollars have been stripped from the market value of Tencent, the world’s largest electronic games company after China’s leader Xi Jinping announced plans for hefty new controls on video and computer games.
Shares in Tencent tumbled drastically after the Government followed the leader’s call by announcing plans for strict new controls on online eGames. Shares of Japanese gamemakers including Capcom, Konami and Bandai Namco also fell.
Chinese state media blamed video games for causing young people to become addicted, lowering their grades, ruining their eyesight – and even killing them. They cite the case of a 17-year-old in Guangzhou who died last year after playing a smartphone game for 40 hours straight.
The official People’s Daily called Tencent’s Honor Kings game “poison. The company has been forced to impose limits on how much time young Chinese can spend playing it each day.
