South Korean Government Orders P2E Games To Be Removed From Google Play And The App Store, This Is The Reason!

It is considered a speculative money-making game. P2E games are banned by the South Korean government. (photo: dk. unsplash)

JAKARTA - The South Korean government has moved to block the release of new play to earn (P2E) games and requested that existing games be removed from Google Play and Apple's App Store.

P2E games have become popular in the cryptocurrency industry. Gamers usually have to first purchase game pieces as non-exchangeable tokens to play the game and receive in-game rewards. But game prizes of more than a few dollars are banned in South Korea.

The Game Management Committee (GMC) at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism yesterday asked major mobile app markets to block any games that require in-app purchases before playing the game.

To combat the proliferation of what it sees as speculative money-making schemes, GMC has made it impossible for P2E game developers to list their work on the most popular mobile app stores.

While the South Korean government's attempt to reduce the growth of P2E games by going directly to the app market is a recent development, game developers in South Korea have been facing court battles since April to keep their P2E games for sale on domestic app stores. The main problem is that some game apps cannot get the required age rating to register on the app store.

An official from the GMC stated that the commission was simply following the Supreme Court precedent in blocking P2E games from getting age-rated and registered.

"It makes sense to prevent P2E games from being age-rated under current law as cash prizes in-game can be considered a reward," the official said in a statement quoted by Cointelegraph Dec. 28.

While the prizes obtained from playing games in South Korea cannot exceed 10,000 KRW (Rp120138) at a time.

The Fivestars for Klaytn P2E game and nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, was initially blocked on domestic app stores due to a lack of ratings, but the team behind the game won a court order last June and the game was able to be listed. The final decision on the game's legal standing is expected to set a legal precedent for other P2E games, such as Infinite Breakthrough Three Kingdoms Reverse.

GMC's stance has negative implications for all P2E gaming apps, including a suite of apps related to the two most popular games to date according to DappRadar: Axie Infinity and Splinterlands.