Yahoo News Candy Crush maker says nine million people play for three hours per day ‘but there’s no addiction problem’
The maker of the international gaming smash hit Candy Crush admitted that nine million players spend between three and six hours per day playing the game.
In questions from a Commons select committee, Alex Dale said that he still did not believe that there was an addiction problem.
He said, ‘Among 270 million players we have between two and three contacts a month from people concerned about having spent too much money or time on the game.
‘It is a very, very small number who spend or play at high levels. When we speak with them they say they are happy with what they are doing.’
Senior executives from the company told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that they are not psychiatrists.
At the 72nd World Health Assembly, WHO members agreed to adopt the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11), which includes 'gaming disorder' among the list of recognised diseases.
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'We need to understand where the science is in this area, we absolutely acknowledge the seriousness of the WHO decision, we note that the American Psychiatric Association doesn’t agree with WHO,' said Alex Dale, senior vice president, head of portfolio and new games at King.
'We’re not psychiatrists, we are happy, however, subject to normal commercial confidentially and data privacy, to work with experts in this area if they want to discuss it with us.'
'With the WHO announcement, we should look at this whole area again, and we will do that but we have tried it before and players said they didn’t like it,' he continued.
Speaking alongside Adam Mitton, King’s vice president for legal, the pair did not indicate whether the gaming giant approved of WHO’s conclusion.
'I think the WHO classification is a relatively recent classification, WHO themselves acknowledge that time spent on its own and money spent on its own doesn’t necessarily mean addiction – we are working with our industry bodies,' Mr Mitton said.
Game makers have faced increased scrutiny about how they take care of players who may become addicted to their works, with Electronic Arts (EA) and Fortnite creators Epic Games already taking questions from the committee.
Last week, the makers of popular battle royale game Fortnite suggested the Duke of Sussex was wrong to say the platform is addictive.
