“People need to see guidance to move, but we keep only reviewing things. Game companies can’t help asking, ‘Are you telling us to market or not?’” (Choe Hwi-young, culture minister)
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choe Hwi-young on April 30 scolded the ministry’s game division during the second meeting of the Culture and Arts Policy Advisory Committee’s game panel at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, urging faster direction for the industry.
“We need to give the industry guidance quickly,” Choe said. “Even if it’s just, ‘You can do this much this time,’ or ‘Ask us,’ we should issue as much guidance as possible within what we can do.”
The meeting brought together ministry officials and committee members representing the industry (Bae Su-jeong, Yoo Seung-hyun, Lim Su-jin), academia (Lee Seung-hoon, Hwang Seung-heum) and associations and groups (Cho Young-gi, Hwang Sung-ik, Kim Young-man) to discuss key tasks and policies for games.
Members said the industry is still constrained by the “Bada Story” controversy from 20 years ago, saying a gambling-related stigma continues to complicate marketing, including giveaways and rewards.
Kim Young-man, president of the Korea e-Sports Association, said prizes are also used in e-sports and are unrelated to gambling. He cited cases in which businesses that had operated for 15 years without problems, including “Real Farm,” were blocked, calling it a lingering effect of two-decade-old regulation.
Kim noted that game industries in Taiwan and Japan offer rewards and urged faster action on issues that can be resolved through the ministry’s and the public’s will.
Choe said the government is reviewing regulatory easing but faces concerns about side effects. “We should move one step within what society can accept, then another step,” he said, adding that officials are discussing how far rules can be loosened while remaining effective and reducing public wariness.
Lee Seung-hoon, a professor in the Department of Game Contents at Anyang University, said restrictions on giveaways are making it harder for game companies to build user data. He said Google and Apple do not disclose user information to developers, and that marketing costs tied to those platforms rise while companies cannot accumulate user data. He warned that developers risk losing key assets tied to open marketplaces and promotion, and said the situation differs from the time of the “Bada Story” controversy because e-sports tournaments did not exist then. He suggested that interpreting the law could be enough to put gambling concerns to rest.
Artificial intelligence was also a major topic. Choe called games the industry that leads IT advances and urged rapid adoption of AI achievements in the field. He asked the industry to propose what government support is needed so it does not fall behind.
Industry representatives criticized support programs as stuck in the past. Yoo Seung-hyun, CEO of Wonder Potion, said AI has made it possible for small teams to build games, but Korea Creative Content Agency programs still use older standards, including a minimum of about 10 people for residency programs. “Thanks to AI, three people can make a game now,” he said, calling the criteria too harsh and urging looser standards to match changing times.
Yoo also said there is some funding for AI tools but the amounts are not large, and asked for expanded advanced support as AI tool prices rise.
The panel also reviewed follow-up progress on key tasks raised at the first meeting, including eradicating illegal private game servers, making the 52-hour workweek more flexible for the game sector, and introducing a tax credit for game production costs.
Choe said illegal private servers would be blocked immediately through the introduction of an emergency blocking authority. He said the tax credit for game production costs should be introduced next year. He also pledged that a 120 billion won game fund, created with a 60 billion won investment from Nexon, would be focused on small and indie game companies.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.