Google to Shut Down Android Game Category in Korea
Google Korea finally made an announcement that it will officially shut down the Game category of the Android app store in Korea “to abide by local law”, which requires all video, computer/mobile and web-based games sold in S.Korea to be reviewed and rated by the government-operated, Games Rating Board (GRB).
This (theoretically) cuts off South Koreans with Android phones from the some 4,400ish games (up to now) in the Android app store. You’d think this is a huge issue if it wasn’t for the fact that “Strike One” was when Apple went through a similar situation and shut down its Game category in the Apple App store. This, of course, just resulted in Korean games developers flooding the Entertainment category with…um…. games. *sigh*
I’ll try to delve into this fully in a follow-up post, but at least for now I wanted to give the quick skinny first, as I see it (you’ve been warned):
The big bad Korea Games Ratings Board says,“No Android Games for you!“
(Yes, I love the Seinfeld “SoupNazi” reference… and tooo easy, I know, but not my fault it keeps coming up! =P)…Google says,“..er… OK. Aww yahh!! MORE FREE PR! I thought we maxed out with that whole shutdown YouTube Korea thing! (FAIL). Its not like this is China. Just switch over to your US account. It’ll work fine. By the way, did you see our Google portal index page available only in Korea?“…Korean developers and carriers say,“ARGH! WT..?… first with Apple, now with Android. I thought the government was supposed to be helping us grow the IT and mobile market and make some freakin money! +_+;; *sigh* Quick, everyone just change the gaming category and accounts again. What? Do they think its China or something?“…Korean Consumer says,“..Um.. did something happen? I have a US-based gmail account anyway ever since the government said “No YouTube for you!” with that ‘require your real-name law’ thing. If I want games (and I do), I’ll get games, dangit! You ain’t the boss of me! This is isn’t the North (Korea) or China, you know!“…Much of the planet says,“Yikes. Didn’t know Korea was so much like China with that whole whole censorship thing. Wait, I thought Koreans were, like, big on video/PC games, and mobile stuff? Kim Jong Il is crazy/scary.“
ok ok.. I’m being very facetious about this, but I think everyone gets the idea: Its a situation that pretty much just makes the GRB look as antiquated, protectionist and impotent as it actually is. The measure does little, in the end, but try to knee-cap Korean game developers and telecos from making money as consumers can easily access Android games via a secondary US-based account (or switching their registered location).
The only consolation is that this is “Strike Two”, so to speak, and that maybe a ”Strike Three!” will mean the Korea Game Ratings Board will be “Out!”
…and Korea will have one less road block towards a unified, global Korean App Store.
Just note that the baseball analogy breaks down if someone starts to say that the GRB could “still hit a Homerun or something”… its not gunna happen. I’ll switch back to psudeo-obscure, pop-culture references if someone even thinks it.
Posted on April 5, 2010 at 6:24 am
Categories: Business
Written by Richard Min
