[KG] Major Companies File Lawsuit Against Shutdown Policy

The shutdown policy that was passed by the Korean National Assembly earlier this year to go into effect this fall is a new Korean government initiative to combat game addiction in South Korea. Aimed at children and teens age 16 and under, this policy limits the amount of time a player may play games by slowing down or shutting down a game service at a certain time. This policy applies only to companies based in Korea, and not to foreign companies servicing games in Korea.

The KAOGI (Korea Association of Online Game Industry) has announced that they will file a lawsuit against the shutdown policy, saying that the shutdown policy is against the South Korean constitution by violating the happiness right, legitimacy and appropriacy in terms of excessive prohibition and minimum infringement. This lawsuit will be led by some of the biggest Korean game companies including Nexon, NCSoft, Neowiz Games and Com2Us, but more companies are expected to join in before the lawsuit is filed this August.

The KAOGI said, “The shutdown lawsuit is to raise the game industry’s voice at the time of denouncing us as a harmful industry. Since the subjects of the lawsuit are members of the association the association will just convey the industry’s voice. Therefore the lawsuit will proceed seperately from the one by civic organization.”

In my opinion, game addiction doesn’t seem to be affecting Korea too negatively. It remains technologically and academically advanced and the country’s industry was one of the least affected by the global recession. Maybe game addiction is a good thing. But really, it’s up to the gamer to know what’s best and limit his or her own gameplay time.