Tencent Games exhibition zone at China International Fair for Trade in Service in Beijing on September 9th, 2020. Photo: VCG

The system of Honor of Kings, Chinese online game developed by Tencent, broke down on Saturday night, the first weekend after China's regulator ordered online gaming firms to limit services to minors.

The video game system failure topped search trends on China's Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo on Saturday night. Many users said they couldn't access the game. 

As of Sunday morning, the topic has exceeded 800 million readers and 71,000 comments.

In response to the online debate, the official account of Honor of Kings on Weibo said that they had fixed the error, and the system would be back online as soon as possible, adding that every user will receive compensation.

Many netizens suggest that the breakdown was due to the sudden traffic inflow of the minors on heels of the strictest anti-addition measure, demanded by China's top media regulator. 

On August 30, China's National Press and Publication Administration ordered internet gaming companies to provide just one hour of services to minors from 8-9 pm on Fridays, weekends and official holidays, in order to prevent minors from becoming addicted to internet games, and to protect their physical and psychological health.

Global Times