As some of you are aware, pending legislation exists both in Colorado and California which governs computer use by underage consumers. Specifically, the legislation mandates that publishers of age-restricted content, including websites and computer games, shall include API calls to the operating system that shall be required to be present under the law where reasonably allowed, and that these API calls shall be tied to a user’s proof of age by documentation or other verifiable means. Zero Break Games has been monitoring this legislation and, given the advanced stage thereof, is making immediate and non-negotiable changes to its development philosophy; consequently, all Zero Break Games products will be released with the expectation of compliance with these laws and will require age verification in order to be played, acquired or both depending on the feasibility thereof.

During the process of implementing the mandatory age checks to be reported by operating systems such as Windows and macOS, Colorado and California (and any other state which considers the implementation of such laws during this phase) will be added to the blocklist for Zero Break Games websites for the entire duration of the implementation period. Furthermore, all Zero Break Games projects will require registration of the user’s game license in an online account system to be developed for the processing and confirmation of a user’s reported age credentials in accordance with these laws. This also impacts compatibility with certain operating systems; owing to the fact that non-commercial and open-source operating systems are not required to report this information at the present time, and to maintain a consistent experience across all Zero Break Games projects, all support for Linux development has been permanently cancelled and will no longer proceed for any Zero Break Games projects which are either in development or may do so in the future.

Zero Break Games takes legal compliance very seriously, and while it is regrettable that these changes are taking place, the perceived potential for penal and/or civil infraction costs and fines are in an unsustainable state of excess compared to the risks of potential non-compliance. Unfortunately, this will also cause an indefinite delay in certain extents of project development other than that which is necessary for public presentation, which shall be limited to existing or unfinished content which cannot be suspended, and shall persist until further notice in order to assess and implement any potential verifications that may be required. Please note, however, that cases where such checks may be logistically detrimental and/or infeasible (such as public demonstrations at trade shows) will not be affected at the present time unless specifically required by either the rules of the event, laws of the host jurisdiction or both, and will proceed as originally planned with the expectation of physical-presence as a mandatory condition of publicity demonstrations.

More information on these changes in procedures, including the license registration system, will be announced at a later date.