Mobile games in South Korea
RegulationVille
Dec 5th 2011, 15:30 by D.T. | SEOUL
SOUTH KOREA is the world leader in online games. Eager young nerdsfrom around the world have even been known to move to Seoul to ply their tradeas professional gamers. “E-sports” masters who reach the top in Korea can earn six-figure incomes andfind their pictures plastered on the bedroom walls of fans. There are over1,000 game-making firms in Korea, and more than 19,000 “PC-bangs” (internetcafés, pictured) in which the top titles are played.
Yet the nascent market for mobile games—those playedon smartphones—has not really taken off, despite the fact that 17 million Koreansare proud owners of Android phones, a further 4 million have iPhones and thecountry is the world’s second biggest consumer of apps overall.
The reason is regulation: Korean law requires all computer games tobe approved by a “Game Review Board” prior to release. This is bad enough for regular game developers.But for those who make mobile games, it was an insurmountable barrier.App-based games tend to be short-lived, simple, and very numerous; requiredfees and approval waiting times made it difficult for small independentdevelopers to prosper. And for Google, whose Android Market is the main way todistribute mobile games, it was a bureaucratic nightmare: the firm did not botherselling such apps in Korea until now.
So it was great news for young and promising mobile games industrywhen the South Korean authorities decided to exempt their wares from the reviewprocess: since early last week game addicts have been able to get their mobilefix. For a desperate few, this may have come just in time: legislation banningunder-16 year-olds from playing online games between midnight and 6am has justcome into effect.