Would You Have Your Eyeball Scanned Just To Play A Video Game?

Razer is teaming up with Sam Altman’s controversial World ID to create a system designed to eradicate bots in online video games. The system will allow gamers to prove they are human by having their eyeball scanned or by producing government ID.

The proliferation of bots in online games has been a problem for many years now, with games firms struggling to eradicate bots from their servers. Even if a bot can be identified in the first place and be banned from the game server, it’s usually trivial for the bot owner to register a new account and enter again.

The new Razer ID verified by World ID system intends to make it harder for bots to re-register by demanding the account holder is a verified human being, by first registering with World ID.

The verification will allow games companies to offer “human-only” modes or servers, where gamers can have confidence they’re playing against real opponents, Razer claims.

World ID Verification

Altman’s World ID has been around for several years now and claims to “securely and anonymously proves you are human online.” It’s linked to the Worldcoin cryptocurrency.

You can verify your World ID in one of two ways: by having your iris scanned by one of the company’s Orbs, or by producing NFC-enabled government ID such as a passport or driver’s license, and registering that via the World ID app.

The iris-scanning Orbs are far from widespread. Many major European countries don’t have an Orb location at all, including the U.K., France and Spain, which means most gamers will have to rely on handing over government ID.

Tiago Sada, a spokesperson for World (the company behind World ID), insisted that there’s no privacy risk involved with submitting your iris scan or government ID to verify you’re a real human being. “Something very important about World ID is that, unlike traditional verification systems, the only thing world ID knows about a person is that they’re a real and unique human being,” he said.

“It doesn’t know who you are, your name, your email, anything like that.”

Your World ID will be linked to your Razer ID, so that gaming servers can have confidence that players are actually human. Tokyo Beast will be the first and only game to implement the system, although Razer insists it’s in talks with other game developers.

World ID Controversy

World ID has met with resistance in several countries around the world, however. The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) temporarily banned Worldcoin from the country in 2024, amid concerns about the iris scanning technology and whether users could withdraw their consent for their ID to be used.

The German data protection authority followed suit at the end of 2024, claiming that the identification procedure “entails a number of fundamental data protection risks for a large number of data subjects” and claimed that the system didn’t comply with the European Union’s data protection laws.

Portugal and Kenya have also suspended or banned World from operating in those countries.

Razer insists the system will improve security for gamers. “Being able to verify a human is very important, because the last thing you want is that all your potential rewards, all your hard-earned rewards, are stolen by a bot,” said Wei-Pin Choo, chief corporate officer at Razer. “That is the complaint we hear a lot about.”