Game Company CEOs Also Attend National Audit... Will the Game Law Amendment Gain Momentum?

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] This year’s National Assembly audit is expected to summon game company CEOs one after another over the controversy surrounding ‘probability-based items,’ drawing attention to whether this will give momentum to the long-stalled discussions on the full revision of the Game Industry Promotion Act.

According to political circles on the 24th, the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee adopted Kim Jung-ju, founder of Nexon, and Kang Won-ki, director of MapleStory, as witnesses for the audit held on the 16th. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee is currently pushing to adopt Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCSoft, as a witness for the audit. All are to question the controversy over probability-based items.

Within the industry, it is widely expected that in this audit as well, each game company will explain the justification for probability-based items and build defensive arguments. In fact, when CEO Kim appeared as a witness at the 2018 audit, he strongly denied accusations of promoting gambling related to Lineage M.

At that time, he emphasized, "In the case of Lineage M, it is not a game where you hope for luck and acquire money," adding, "Gambling is playing a game with money at stake, and speculation is acquiring money by chance. The items obtained by Lineage M users are items for the game."

There are also expectations that the audit will give momentum to discussions on the revision of the Game Industry Promotion Act. Lee Sang-heon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, introduced a full revision bill of the Game Industry Promotion Act as the main proposer in December last year. The bill includes mandatory disclosure of information such as the types of probability-based items and the supply probability for each type.

The bill, currently under review by the legislative subcommittee, has seen stalled discussions for nine months without even scheduling a public hearing. If the CEOs of the game companies fail to present alternatives regarding probability-based items during this audit, the justification for passing the revision bill is expected to become even stronger.

The academic community is also urging the passage of the revision bill. Wi Jeong-hyun, president of the Korea Game Society, stated, "This audit should serve as an opportunity to form a national consensus on resolving the issue of probability-based items, and based on this, the Game Industry Promotion Act revision bill should be passed early," adding, "The legalization of the disclosure of probability-based items included in the revision bill is the beginning of efforts to revitalize the game ecosystem and restore trust among game users."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.