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Last month we told you how South Korea may block Android Market because the country’s regulatory system for games didn’t have a chance to rate each one before it was made available for download. It appears the solution isn’t that bad… but half as bad. According to Yonhap News, Google will remove the entire Games category from Android Market within the next month or so.
The move will be made simply to abide with local law, as implementing a system for the South Korean game board to review each game would essentially be impossible. Apple has done the same thing with the iPhone App Store in South Korea, although developers have tried to evade that block by submitting games to the Entertainment category.
Unlike the iPhone OS, Android has some potential to assist users in this case with downloads from 3rd party sources. Theoretically, it takes to give South Korean Android fans their fix of gaming on their device!
[Via UnwiredView]
They will think twice when we get Starcraft. nuf’ said.
Freedom of Speech! Damn communists… oh wait, South Korean is a democracy. Okay, I’ll let you pass and obey your laws. – Google.
@M5
Rating the content of games and attempting to censor political expression online are too vastly different things
*two
@squee147
Rating and censoring of course are two vastly different things. Just like apple and orange, by the way.
They need to let their people play GAMESSS!
more evidence that governments fail
More evidence that y’all need to be very very grateful you were born American.
@bill
Knock on wood please, the way this president is handling business…
Are flash games online also banned in South Korea?
so…. actually google should pull out from korea market as its not open and no freedom based on china case
Well if American politicians had their way, they’d do the same thing for games here in America too. Both Repubs & Dems have tried to use games for political leverage. What we need to do is tell those politicians quit worrying about games, start working on jobs, and quit arguing with each other. M5, the way the minority party is handing their business is way worse than the president in my opinion. No isn’t always an acceptable answer.
Android users can get around this. That’s not a big deal. I’m just worried that politicians here will get ideas from South Korea.
You people are nutskies. Rating is not censorship. Censorship is forbidding a game completely or making developer cut certain content. Rating is classifying game content using a well-understood criteria in order to help consumers choose and distribution channels to better place the product. We have a rating system in USA, it is called ESRB. Most distribution channels here will not carry unrated games. Some – like Walmart – will not carry certain ratings. (i.e. M), and stores also use ratings to restrict sales to minors. Selling R rated game to a minor is a legal offense. Ratings help consumers determine at a glance weather a game is appropriate. When I go to buy some game as a gift for a 12-year-old, I look at titles rated no higher than ‘T’. But no one is prohibited from making and distributing, say, a XXX game. It will likely only be sold at sites where you have to click ‘I am over 18’ to enter, but it will be available nonetheless.
In Korea, the system is simply more extensively implemented.
Given that Android can be open to 3rd party apps, App Market could be changed so that in Korea, you are given a link to the developer’s site, rather than direct download. Then, developers would have to square it with Korean ratings board on their own.
@bill
I will be more grateful if I were born in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. You will agree with me if you find out the grim truth about America:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25166.htm
Governments always fail. Look at America and Obamacare. Make healthcare mandatory, tax the people, and fine/jail them if they don’t want it.
It’s simply. Developers need to use a Korean Publisher (note, I am a Korean Publisher). Besides Korean Game Rating Board, Korean Operators implemented their respective ARM/DRMs to protect Developer’s IPs. Korea is one of the most law abiding and IP secure countries in the world. Thus mobile gaming market is one of the largest. Operators are blocking SlideME and other ‘sales channels’ or off-portals channels. Android OS is ‘open’ but the business/regulatory sides is a ‘walled garden.’
Korean Publishers can help foreign companies overcome such hurdles (and help localize and market and relationship with Operators).
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/features/268/Android-is-opening-up-Korea-to-outsiders
I am the Managing Partner of one of the largest Android and iPhone publishers in Korea called Brilliant Rise Korea. Prior to this, I was CMO/COO of Com2uS, the largest and public mobile game publisher in Korea ([email protected]).