China is very carefully building a gaming monster. So do you need a VPN

Tencent owns a 40% stake in Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, one of the world's most popular games. Tencent also owns Riot games 100%. Riot brings the world "League of Legends," one of the most popular desktop-based games. Tencent is one of China's big tech players and has its finger in many pies.

The Chinese Government is entitled to review (spy) on all data hosted in China for political reasons. Tencent has a large contract to review (spy) on behalf of the Chinese Government. Tencent also operates as one of the largest ISP (internet service providers) in China, making it very easy for Tencent to review user traffic and data. 

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China Owned - What we know

Riot Games (League of Legends) - 100 %
Epic Games - 40 
Bluehole (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) - 11.5 % 
Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile) - 80 % 
Ubisoft 5%
Activision Blizzard - 5 %
Supercell - 84.3 %
Frontier Developments - 9 %
Yager - Undisclosed investment
Platinum Games - Undisclosed investment
Kakao - 13.5 %: 
Paradox Interactive - 5 %: 
Fatshark - 36 %: 
Funcom - 29 %: 
Sharkmob - 100 %: 
Discord: unknown

Chinese ownership is assumed to be greater than this. Cheap money is available to Chinese companies wishing to buy into gaming companies worldwide. China is building a position of dominance in the worldwide gaming industry which worries cybersecurity experts. The experts think that China may develop means of infiltrating games devices, desktops and laptops.

In the gaming industry, there is Tencent, then there is everyone else. Even Sony PlayStation plays second fiddle to Tencent. During the lockdown, Tencent's gaming income rose to $13 billion up 44%, near double what the Sony games division raked in at $7bl. That is up tenfold since 2007.

Tencent is the anointed one, Beijing's centrally nominated player in an industry, the all-powerful one. In China, one is always moving in the party's direction. In the summer of 2021 Chinese government took further steps to make sure Chinese Tech giants must follow the rules and do as told. China's richest man, Ma Huateng chairs Tencent. 

Parental Control, Western Parents would kill for

For younger players, there are player blocks. For schoolgoing kids, parental control is mandatory; 

• One-hour playtime blocks
• Time limits during the week and slightly longer on the weekend,
• Strict control on adult-oriented content, imposed not optional.
• Music to the ears of western parents, but of course, there is a more sinister element.

Former US President Trump slammed down the phone and later denied it as fake news in an argument with President Xi about Tencent and TikTok. The next trade war with China will most likely focus on the gaming industry. No one in the west is happy with what China does with the data that passes through Chinese data centres and gaming company servers. The source fodder for Chinese, Russian cyberattacks?

More to come.

Two of China's biggest players TikTok (Bytedance) and Alibaba's Jack Ma, China's 3rd richest man, are joining the race to control gaming worldwide. Gaming now outstrips all other forms of entertainment, including sports, and China is boss. So that is why it is so important. The Economist has written that Fortnite ought to be an Olympic sport.

The richest people in China are behind all of this expansion onto gaming platforms, and the Chinese Government is behind them controlling them, making sure they do as told. So gamers need protection.

It is not all bad! Parental control is a winner in China

The Chinese goverment mandates parental control in China on all games for kids. Full parental control is enforced on Chinese kids.

• One hour time limits, and a weekly time limit
• Content-control, no adverts, Addiction warnings
• Limited in-game purchasing options. 
• ​Age verification is legally enforced with lifetime bans

Whilst Chinese mandated parental control may suit parents worldwide, Should we do everything we can to protect ourselves from exposing our details, especially our kids' details to them?  

• People spend so so much time gaming, 
• Gaming companies know everything about you
• Your moods, your intelligence levels, what motivates you 
• What you do, where you work, what mental age you are, your IQ

Once this information was to know when was the best moment to sell you stuff, however now this information could be used way more creatively, such as mind control. 

Real Gamers use protection.

Every serious gamer I have ever spoken to uses protection for gaming, in fact, if they don't they are not serious about gaming. Gamers are one of the biggest sources of income for the cybersecurity industry. Gamers are smart and just do not want to take a chance. Protection for the Phone, Desktop, home router. 

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