Honor of Kings experiments with facial recognition to identify players
Tencent on edge after game addiction warning from Chinese state media
Turns out, that’s exactly what Tencent is thinking.
The company says a test is now underway in Honor of Kings -- its blockbuster smartphone game, known as Arena of Valor outside of China -- to verify players’ identity with facial recognition.
Arena of Valor, China’s mobile League of Legends, is aiming to be the world’s go-to mobile esport
The system will select around 1,000 new users at random in Beijing and Tencent’s home turf of Shenzhen. Video of each player’s face, captured in real time by the phone’s camera, will be checked along with information from a national security database.
App blurs video if you hold the smartphone too close to your face
But it looks like a lot of gamers in China aren’t comfortable with this latest experiment.
Tencent itself said half of the people it surveyed last month, including parents and gamers of various age, were dubious about having to show their face just to play a game. The company says it decided to go ahead with the test anyway to “explore the possibility of using facial recognition in a real-life environment.”
But many more are now expressing concerns about Tencent’s idea.
Some wondered if other games might be next.
“My nephew isn’t playing Honor of Kings anymore,” one user wrote. “Now they are playing battle royale games.”
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For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.