The South Korean authorities have continued to strengthen their spot as the leading cryptocurrency watchdog globally. For now, the government target the NFT sensation of Play-2-Earn games. Recently, the country’s GMC (Game Management Committee) approached Google and Apple, mobile application store giants, to block all games with in-app purchases before enjoying the game.
Local news reveals that regulators in South Korea view Play-to-earn games as malicious systems targeted to extract money from individuals. Therefore, the recent GMC order might remove these games from top mobile app stores. Though the watchdogs did not use ‘banning’ in their statement, their actions reveal the intent.
GMC and P2E Games
Meanwhile, South Korea has attacked P2E games before. The GMC has had an ongoing fight with the Play-to-Earn game organization, citing ‘age-ratings’ concern. As GMC ordered these non-fungible token games to use the committed for age ratings, P2E game firms consecutively launched new games with self-rating mechanisms.
The self-rating approach came via in-house grading services. In-house services providers for game launches allowed gaming firms to rate themselves. Nevertheless, the Game Commission suspended P2E games’ distribution in the nation. That resulted in more brushing between the watchdogs and the P2E gaming market, gaming firms taking GMC to court continuously.
Indeed, play-to-earn games have seen popularity in the crypto space. Players need to buy game facets as NFTs to play and enjoy in-game rewards. Meanwhile, South Korea banned gaming prizes involving few dollars.
Meanwhile, GMC views P2E games a speculative schemes designed to take money from gamers. For that reason, it prohibited play-to-earn games from listing on top mobile application stores.
Though the strategy to attack paly2earn games via application platforms might be new, developers have encountered court fights since April to list the games in domestic application stores. The issue is that most game apps couldn’t get the ‘age rating’ needed for listing the gaming apps.
Meanwhile, some market players believe Korean regulators took a negative stance on P2E games. Such developments might ruin the gaming market in South Korea. That is because GMC’s approach impacts play-to-earn gaming applications negatively, including top platforms like Splinterlands and Axie Infinity.
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