When the South Korean government announced that all games would need to be approved by the games rating board before being sold in the country, both Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) removed the games sections from their online markets (iTunes and Android Market, respectively) rather than face the prospect of trying to get every single game app approved. Now, that regulation has been changed, and the apps are coming back!
Well, the Android ones are anyway. According to the Android Developers Blog the games section is already back up on the Korean Android marketplace. And it sounds like buying them is easy too:
Starting right away, Android users in Korea can explore the many thousands of popular game titles available in Android Market and download them onto their devices. For paid games, purchasing is fast and convenient through direct carrier billing, which lets users in Korea easily charge their purchases to their monthly mobile operator bills.
That’s good news for Korean gamers, and good news for developers, too. In 2010, South Korea was the world’s seventh-largest market for mobile games, and the second-largest world market for online games. As those worlds merge, we expect the size of the mobile games market in Korea to grow, which means for mobile game developers, it might be time to start learning Korean! (Or, a better idea: hire a skilled localization team).
[Via Android Developers Blog and Image Source]
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