It is speculated that Shutdown system will be applied online games only. Both ministries, Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism and Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, agreed that the system will not apply to mobile and console games “temporarily”.
Ministry of Gender Equality & Family judged that game addiction in mobile and console games are not serious enough in Korea for now. Therefore, they will have a grace period for 2 years for those platforms.
The facts are 1) it is difficult to have such an age verification system that could block users under age 16 for mobile and console games 2) Servers for Xbox360&PS3 are operated by foreign companies who are not under an umbrella of domestic regulations.
There is one more exception – old PC retail games. For example, some PC retail games with online features don’t have an age verification process when users register for it will be an exception, such as the old Battle.net from Blizzard Entertainment.
As a result, most of Korean game companies who develop online games mostly and rarely develop console games and PC retail games will be affected by Shutdown System. Korean online game companies said that it is reverse discrimination against them.
The agreement from both ministries will be announced at cabinet meeting on 8th of November. MoonHwaYunDae (http://www.culturalaction.org/)has filed a constitutional appeal against Shutdown system to the Constitutional Court last 28th. Therefore, the decision from the Constitutional Court will be the key for applying the system or not.
