The so called `Age restriction’ bomb explosion is expected to Net Marble Games and NCsoft`s mobile lineage game.

According to the industry sources on June 1, Lineage 2 Revolution of Netmarble, NCsoft`s Lineage M also shows the possibility of changing the age restriction from` 12 years old `to` not available for teenager`. Changes in the age level are in the center of attention as they lead to direct sales to game companies such as game users and sales declines.

According to the decision of the Game Management Committee (hereafter referred to as ‘the game committee’) that a game that uses an item trading system applying paid goods recently is required to have a ‘age restriction’ rating, Lineage 2 Revolution changed to ‘Not available for teenager`. As a result, there is a need to tune the age rating standards between the mobile game private rating companies (Google, Apple) and the game division, and the authorities are slowing down their ratings.

The game committee decided on May 10 that the age rating of Revolution was not available to teenagers. The game committee advised the game company to fix the content according to its rating, saying that the rating of the game decided by its own classifier was inadequate earlier, in February, two months after the release of Revolution.

It is the judgment of the game committee that the transaction system using the paid goods in Revolution (the goods and the items which the user obtains by paying cash) replicates the item trading site which is restricted to teenagers. There is a concern that the transaction system using paid goods may induce excessive consumption of the juveniles and encourage cheating. The item trading site has been designated by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as a harmful medium for juveniles.

According to the game committee, Net Marble decided not to modify the content according to the recommendation of the game committee, but to get the rating again through the game committee. The game company applied for re-classification on the game with a hoping grade of ‘Available for 12 years old’ in April, but received a judgment on youth unavailability on May 10.

Net Marble should revise the game contents in the grace period (tentative period) or to build a system (adult authentication, etc.) required for games that cannot be used by teenagers based on result of the youth unavailability rating being decided.

It is expected that the users break down and the sales decrease accordingly in the case of Net Marble does not modify the content and services the game with a teenager restriction rating, or if the content is modified but is still classified as a game that cannot be used by the teenager.

According to market researcher Wise` app, 8% of Revolution users are teenagers. The monthly number of users of Revolution (based on Android) decreased from 1.20 million in December to 1.87 million in January, 1.48 million in February, 1.26 million in March, 1.12 million in April and 1.94 million in May. It is an observed that the cost to compensate for the users who play the game by securing the items by paying for the fee according to the unavailable grade of the youth will be considerable.

Net Marble representative said, "We will make sure that users are not inconvenienced by improving our system of exchange. We are revising the content during the grace period." It is observed that the changed content will be visible in the second week of this month.

Meanwhile, it is possible that the ‘age restriction’ bomb will also appear on NCsoft`s Lineage M, which is expected to be launched this month. The game included Exchange content. The content includes a system that enables the merchandise to be traded through paid goods.

Currently, the company is in the process of pre-registering the game, which is rated as 12-year-old use through its own classifier. It is stated that the proportion of teenager among the 4 million registrants is small. The company representative said, "The details of the exchange system have not yet been set.”

On the other hand, 100 kinds of games are being provided with a grade that cannot be used for teenagers as there is a system that deals with paid goods.

By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@


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