Steam in Hot Water in South Korea

Kotaku reports that South Korean authorities have been cracking down over the weekend on unrated games, and this may mean considerable bad things for Korean Steam users.

Korean law states that all games available to the public must be rated by the Game Rating Board.  That’s all well and nice, except that game makers must pay to get their game rated, and many cannot afford the price.  When South Korea says all games, they mean all games.  Tiny indie games, flash-based or mobile whatsits, big blockbusters, and everything in between.

Team Liquid, a StarCraft community site, reports that Steam games may even be in the sights of Korean authorities.

Steam, of course, doesn’t require any of its games to get approval from the Korean government, and there are many many small publishers and indie developers who distribute their games on its service.  Someone from inside South Korea’s game rating board said that a “complete block is on the table, but [they] are seeking alternate options.’

The poster’s sources for this info are here and here, helpfully (sort of) Google translated.

(via Kotaku.)

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Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

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