Chinese state media on Tuesday slammed on-line video games as “spiritual opium,” sending stocks of the nation’s largest online game company tumbling.
Economic Information Daily — a newspaper affiliated with China’s largest state information company, Xinhua — made the provocative comparability in an article through which it stated younger folks in China had been hooked on on-line video games and referred to as for a crackdown on the {industry}.
The story particularly referred to as out “Honor of Kings,” a well-liked on-line recreation created by Tencent, the nation’s largest online game developer.
“‘Spiritual opium’ has grown into an industry worth hundreds of billions,” the newspaper wrote. ”No {industry}, no sport, could be allowed to develop in a method that can destroy a era.”
Shortly after the article was revealed, Tencent shares dipped greater than 10 % in buying and selling earlier than markets opened and had been down 7.4 % early Tuesday afternoon.
The company’s stock has plummeted practically 40 % over the previous six months amid investor fears concerning the Chinese authorities’s broader crackdown on tech, which has additionally slammed corporations like Alibaba and Didi.
Shares of US online game maker Activision Blizzard additionally fell about 5 % Tuesday, though that transfer could have…
