Steam Free-to-Play Games Launch: Questions in Korea

Valve recently launched a “free-to-play” category on Steam, its global gaming-platform service. I’m not sure how popular Steam is in Korea (I use it, but I’ve only spotted it occasionally on the laptops and PCs of my colleagues), but the launch raises a few questions in the online gaming industry in Korea on the compulsory game-age-rating certification here and how global gaming services like Steam would be affected by the nightly “shut-down system” for teens, which rolls out later this year. 

Steam Client in Korea

Free-to-play (on Steam at least) means the game is free to download and play, with the choice to buy items/premium play options (micro-transactions) within the game.  Free-to-play games launched on Steam on June 15, with 5 titles ready for download, including A.V.A, an online team-based FPS developed by Redduck, a Korean studio. New titles will launch on a regular basis.

 The launch of the free-to-play service on Steam in Korea has raised a few questions:

 

 

 

No Korea Game Age Rating required? 
The first and foremost concern is these free-to-play titles on Steam or any other global gaming platform don’t have to go through Korea’s compulsory game-rating process in order to launch. All games in Korea must receive a compulsory rating before launching from the Korea Game Rating Board (Korea GRB). Yet, games on Steam or other global gaming services have not been subjected to this process.

 Depending on the type of game or number of games, the ratings-process is time-consuming and – for single-man indie developers – a financial irritation. This is why Apple has no game category in Korea, for example: In theory, publishers would have to submit all their on the app. store for certification to the Korea GRB and then resubmit to Apple with certification stamps inserted into the game.  While for mobile, legislation is under discussion to ease this requirement, it seems unlikely that online will get the same treatment anytime soon at a time when new regulations loom to further restrict online game use for minors.

The threat of compulsory game-rating or service shutdown is not new to Valve. The Korean GRB sporadically clamps down on games that have not gone through certification, the most recent victims being developers of home-brew games. Will the GRB’s stance change with the launch of Free-to-play and possibility of increased competition with Korean online games?  

Shut-down system for global gaming platforms?
The key legislation for the online gaming space so far this year is the “shut-down system,” where under-sixteens will be barred from logging into online game services from midnight to 6am. So, the question raised is how will the government impose its shut-down system for online gaming in November this year on non-Korean gaming platforms (or indeed for in the mobile space, should the shut-down system be implemented after the 2-year grace period for mobile games ends)?

Increased competition?
Korean users will (of course!) try out free games on Steam’s free-to-play service, increasing user attrition from other games. Free-to-play is hardly new to Korea (Kart Racer, etc.), but the potential range of genres could mean direct competition with other subscription-based online game service.

Does anyone know what the situation is in other countries where a shutdown system is already in place, like Vietnam, China, or Thailand?

Reference.:
http://www.gamemeca.com/news/news_view.html?seq=7&ymd=20110615&page=1&point_ck=&search_ym=&sort_type=&search_text=&send=&mission_num=&mission_seq= Steam client from www.steampowered.com