Amid growing number of marathon online game sessions, Chinese online platform Chushou said one of its star anchors Gu Wang, 20, who was found dead on Nov. 2 was indeed a victim of over-work.
The online games platform has now limited its live streaming services. "Anchors should pay attention to their health. They should make it a priority while working hard for their fans," Chushou said in a statement and advised all the hosts of such online marathon games to undergo medical checkups every year.
Gu Wang was hosting the session of Arena of Valor, a multiplayer battle game, on the Chushou website before he succumbed to cardiac arrest and died. He was hosting the midnight to 9 am broadcast since July, but on Nov. 2, he had extended it several times owing to demands from the audience, said the company.
Gu Wang was the website's No. 1 anchor with over 170,000 fans and received 1.75 million gifts on his live broadcast platform. These gifts are a major source of income for the anchors in China. More than money, popularity among fans is the key to overwork among the anchors in China.
The game King of Glory or 'Arena of Vallor' in the western markets, is a mobile game developed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. chushou is a barrage-based live broadcast platform for mobile games with more than 100,000 players and about 10 million viewers.
Otherwise, this is the first death of overwork in China's mobile game industry. In Japan, these deaths called "Kuroshi" are known for decades reflecting the growing work culture trends spreading in other areas of the world.
The recent Japanese labour department's report admitted that Miwa Sado, 31, who worked at the national broadcaster NHK's headquarters in Tokyo, logged 159 hours of overtime and took only two days off in July 2013 before her death in the office.
