Gaming industry, gov't push for deregulation
By Yoon Sung-won
The Korean gaming industry and relevant ministries are seeking to ease regulations such as the online game shutdown law to expand freedom of business and promote voluntary control of gaming companies.
Such moves, however, are expected to face opposition at the National Assembly from lawmakers who stress the rights of parents and consumers over those of businesses.
“The government said nearly two years ago it will push to ease the online game shutdown law and make it a selective restriction,” a source from the gaming industry said Wednesday. “But it seems uncertain whether the ministries’ revision bill will pass the National Assembly as there still are lawmakers who strongly support the system.”
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in the announcement of its plan to improve the service industry that it will push to ease the online game shutdown law this year by integrating two separate regulations under cooperation with other related ministries and government agencies.
Enacted in 2011 as a part of the Juvenile Protection Act, the obligatory online game shutdown law bans adolescents younger than 16 from playing online games between midnight and 6 a.m. Separately, parents can request the application of the selective online game shutdown system for minors aged over 16.
Despite continued claims by gaming businesses over the unconstitutionality of the law, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2014 that it is constitutional.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which is the competent authority of the regulation, plans to propose a revision bill in November that selectively eases the obligatory and unconditional restriction and allows juveniles to play online games even in the restricted hours with their parents’ permission. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is also planning to revise the regulation in the same way.
The two ministries had submitted the revision bill at the previous National Assembly in 2014 but failed to pass it. Advocates of the law _ including Nam In-soon of the Minjoo Party of Korea and Na Kyung-won and Han Sun-kyo of the Saenuri Party _ won their seats in the 20th National Assembly and are expected to move against the revision plan.
Voluntary control
Separately, gaming companies are joining hands to strengthen voluntary control over the sales of lottery in-game items as politicians are pressurizing the industry with a regulation that obligates service providers to a certain level of probability in in-game lottery systems.
Once the obligation passes the National Assembly, most gaming business here including Nexon, Netmarble Games and NCSOFT, which have generated profits based on such a business model, may face decreased sales.
The Korea Internet Digital Entertainment Association (K-IDEA), the largest Korean gaming industry lobby, has pledged to boost voluntary efforts and encourage company participation, calling the legal obligations a “poison pill” that will undermine the growth of the domestic gaming industry.
“Control over the sales of lottery in-game items should be dealt with voluntary measures, not through legislation,” K-IDEA said in a statement. “The association is planning to expand and solidify the existing voluntary control over such items.”
An official at a local gaming company said, “The regulation on the gaming industry’s key business model does not seem to be in line with the government’s drive for deregulation. Korean gaming companies may suffer losses in competition with foreign businesses should they open the probability of lottery in-game items.”
Game users here, on the contrary, welcome the regulation and pointed out voluntary measures for the gaming business are “inefficient.”
According to data by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Green Consumer Network in Korea, only 27 titles out of 158, for which companies have claimed to apply the voluntary controls, released the probability of their lottery systems between July 2015 and May this year.