Nexon steps up opposition to revise game law

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By Baek Byung-yeul

The game industry here is opposing the government's move to revise current game laws for the first time in 14 years, as some clauses in the newly proposed laws may cause a dip in competitiveness against overseas companies.

The culture ministry said last week it planned to amend the current Game Industry Promotion Act within the year and unveiled a draft reflecting changes for the first time it was enacted in 2006.

The amended laws includes new terms that offer improved support measures for the local game industry and protecting gamers' rights. The ministry will also change the title of the law to the tentatively the Game Business Act from the current Game Industry Promotion Act.

But what is controversial is the ministry's plan to force game firms to disclose that they are selling "lucky-draw in-game items," which have been a primary source of revenue.

Lucky-draw items are virtual in-game items that help players advance in a game. Though they are criticized for encouraging overspending and stimulating gambling by selling the lucky-draw items, game companies have been developing various ways to induce more players to make more purchases.

Acknowledging such criticism, the Korea Association of Game Industry (K-Games), the largest game industry lobby here, introduced a self-regulatory measure in 2015, which requires companies to provide gamers detailed information about win-lose ratios when selling the randomized virtual items.

Since the draft was unveiled, K-Games, which represents 71 local game companies including leading players Nexon, NCSOFT and Netmarble, released a statement saying it opposed the move to disrupt the self-regulatory process in the industry.

"We are concerned about the government's intention to see the game industry as an object to be regulated not promoted by changing the title of the law to the Game Business Act," K-Games said.

An official from the industry said obligating game firms to disclose the lucky-draw items will inversely impact the local industry because it is more difficult to impose sanctions on foreign companies that are not in compliance.

"Almost every Korean company has been complying with the self-regulations. As 22 of 23 violations came from games developed by foreign companies, we are strongly opposed to the ministry's move to make a new law because this could cause reverse discrimination," he said.

Kim Sang-tae, a law professor at Soonchunhyang University, one of the members who conducted research on revising the Game Industry Promotion Act, said they decided to amend it because "the existing current law is weighted toward regulating the game industry, not promoting it."

"As the current laws in the game industry are aimed at imposing legal controls on the game industry…game companies are having a hard time to distribute new type of games. So we tried to solve this issue by revising it," Kim said during an open forum hosted by the culture ministry in Seoul, Tuesday.

The ministry will also launch a state-run agency that will be responsible for promoting the industry. Though the country had the Korea Game Development and Promotion Institute, it became the Korea Creative Content Agency in 2009.

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