South Korea looking to ban Steam

[GilloD]

Basically, the South Korean government makes a TON of money 'certifying' and 'rating' games. It costs like 10k or more to have this done. It's another way the government likes to lock it down for big business interests here. Anyhow, as the story goes they're pissed that game on Steam don't have to be 'certified' and so they're demanding that Valve take down any titles that haven't coughed up the dough to be safe for Korean consumption.

These dudes be crazy. We'll see what happens.

Here's the article: http://www.dt.co.kr/contents.html?article_no=2010090302010431749003

And a rough translation: "In the latest decision by Department of Videogame Rating Board of Korea, they have expressed possible intention to block all Valve's Steam services from Korea due to the fact they have Korean language support yet both the service and games have not been rated or approved by the department.


As it stands right now in Korea, all electronic games including indy games, flash games, and games distributed on-line must be rated by the department, paying up to hundreds and thousands of dollars fee for the rating.

The department have set a precedent in the past with 'Tribe Wars', a free on-line web browser based game which refused to be rated by the department, so the department blocked the country's internet access to the website.

An insider from the department suggests, 'complete block is on the table, but are seeking alternate options.'

The department is likely expecting Steam to send all games in for approval, taking in thousands of dollars per game just for the process.

Korean communities, especially all FPS related websites are enraged with their keyboards, typing in massive amounts of exclamation marks, but are unlikely to amount to any meaningful action.



Also the department is currently enforcing an initiative which requires free homebrew games to be rated by the board as well.

http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=30383

In this article, a homebrew game making team was undergoing a development of an RPG game made with RPG-maker (RPG Tsukuru) when they recieved a cease-or-desist e-mail from the department unless they sent in their game for rating (as well as asking for a hefty amount of fee). The team eventually closed all their websites and ceased game development as it was too much burden on their pocket, rendering Korea's video game industry pretty much dead."

lulz.

[MCD]

http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/index.aspx

[GilloD]

Just started my second contract. I'm countin' the days, haha.

[Great Rumbler]

That's pretty messed up.

[demi]

South Korea

[OptimoPeach]

Also the department is currently enforcing an initiative which requires free homebrew games to be rated by the board as well.

http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=30383

In this article, a homebrew game making team was undergoing a development of an RPG game made with RPG-maker (RPG Tsukuru) when they recieved a cease-or-desist e-mail from the department unless they sent in their game for rating (as well as asking for a hefty amount of fee). The team eventually closed all their websites and ceased game development as it was too much burden on their pocket, rendering Korea's video game industry pretty much dead."

lulz.

Now this is nuts

[chronovore]

You know, I think if this ratings board is a straight-up affair like the ESRB, this should be fine. If it's simply a scam for the government to get a varying amount of money from anyone developing games, it's one of the most disturbingly shortsighted bits of government interference I've ever heard of.

[pilonv1]

Sort of, but it's not that much money. I don't think it's anywhere near $10,000.

[chronovore]

The ESRB is pretty reasonable as well. I don' think there is a per-submission cost, and I don't think anyone would be doing business with them if they tried to charge tens of thousands of dollars. The key difference here is that it's a government agency, right?

[Sho Nuff]

I've heard ESRB is +$10,000.

[chronovore]

I've heard ESRB is +$10,000.

Technically, that would be "a ten of thousands" and not "tens of thousands," but sure, I see your point.

[GilloD]

bu bu bu people are trying to buy cross region products legitimately - we HAVE to stop them.

Yeah, because NO ONE knows how to then go and BT the shit out of content and pay you NOTHING.

This isn't about what's best for a region or the gaming business or the evils of piracy- South Korea just sees a huge fucking payday and they're trying to milk it. It happens in every Korean industry. For instance, unless you sell THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS worth of beer every year, it is ILLEGAL to bottle your beer and sell it. You can serve it out of a keg BUT ONLY IN A BAR YOU OWN, you can't sell a keg to another bar. It's to protect th huge corporate brewing interests in Korea. Korean beer sucks beyond belief.

[pilonv1]

The ESRB is pretty reasonable as well. I don' think there is a per-submission cost, and I don't think anyone would be doing business with them if they tried to charge tens of thousands of dollars. The key difference here is that it's a government agency, right?

The key difference here is that Korea and Australia are trying to force indies go through the same process that mainstream pubs do. The big fuss over the Australian one was for apps on the iTunes store.

That's more a "think of the children" censorship thing though, not a money grabbing thing.

[GilloD]

The ESRB is pretty reasonable as well. I don' think there is a per-submission cost, and I don't think anyone would be doing business with them if they tried to charge tens of thousands of dollars. The key difference here is that it's a government agency, right?

The key difference here is that Korea and Australia are trying to force indies go through the same process that mainstream pubs do. The big fuss over the Australian one was for apps on the iTunes store.

That's more a "think of the children" censorship thing though, not a money grabbing thing.

It's also politically convenient in SK right now. Video games get blamed for a ton of shit. And, honestly, the kids here do play WAY TOO MUCH, but they're also in school until 11 PM and they never see their parents. This generation is fuuu.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

And Steam isn't part of big business?  I'm all confused here.

[Great Rumbler]

And Steam isn't part of big business?  I'm all confused here.

Steam is allowing smaller developers to subvert the money-making system.

[pilonv1]

Wouldn't surprise me if local distributors are lobbying government about it too.

[GilloD]

And Steam isn't part of big business?  I'm all confused here.

Korean big business, sorry.

[fistfulofmetal]

Please understand.