Sony Suspending the PS Store in Korea

[The Wooster]

Sony Suspending the PS Store in Korea

New Korean legislation will make the PlayStation Store illegal in one month.


The PlayStation Store and all related services for the PS3 will be suspended in South Korea from June 29th onward in order to comply with the nation's new "Game Industry Promotion Act".

The new law is to go into effect on July 1st and states that people under the age of 18 cannot be required to give their real name or age in order to sign up for online services. PSN currently requires a name and age from all users who sign up, and as Sony doesn't have enough time to alter the sign up process before the end of the month, it's elected to shut down the service entirely until it can be changed to comply with the new law.

Sony aims to have the service back up within the year, but hasn't given a concrete date for its return. During the outage, it will be impossible for users to purchase new content or register for online games. Oddly, the Vita, PSP and other portable devices with access to the PSN store won't be affected by the outage.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/172702/Sony_forced_to_suspend_PlayStation_Store_in_Korea_following_new_laws.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29]

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[wooty]

Is it me or are the Asian nations getting really tight over online actions and content.

I read that Japan is doing something to make viewing certain things on YouTube illegal, China is.......China when it comes to the internet and N.Korea may aswell not have internet access at all.

 

[EHKOS]

I just hope this doesn't blow back on Sony. It's not their fault this time.

 

[Scow2]

Shouldn't the law be more like
people under the age of 18 cannot be required to give their real name or age in order to sign up for online services.

No, no it shouldn't. Children and teens have a need for some internet services (As much as you may not like it), and they likewise shouldn't be banned from online gaming and the like (And nor should underaged players be banned from M-rated ESRB games). While there may allegedly be a problem with under-aged people having access to online services they really shouldn't be on, that is a problem for their parents to handle, not a legislator's. Most services require an E-mail address anyway, and if you're mature enough to figure out how to set one of those up, you're mature enough for the internet.


And having underaged people "require a parent's permission/authentication" that some sites and services try to do is an obtuse, unwieldy system, and is most easily implemented by requesting information that someone too young for the service wouldn't have access to.

 

[FantomOmega]

I wonder if they will verify EVERY. SINGLE. NAME on the psn to make sure someone under eighteen haven't violated this law?

Why not just let Sony tell anyone under the age of eighteen to change their name to a fake one in their account profile after Sony make the adjustments to allow you do so? simple, even if it will take some time to implement.

This law sounds downright retarded if its supposed to "protect" the youth if they're still allowed to provide their correct ADDRESS with their FAKE name when registering for ANYTHING online so want's the point in all of this?

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

Well let me know how this turns out >_>

 

[targren]

Enjoy those Vitas, guys!

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Is it me or are the Asian nations getting really tight over online actions and content.

I read that Japan is doing something to make viewing certain things on YouTube illegal, China is.......China when it comes to the internet and N.Korea may aswell not have internet access at all.

I wonder if North Korea has it's own version of the internet, and using it is like using the web browser in GTAIV.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Is it me or are the Asian nations getting really tight over online actions and content.

I read that Japan is doing something to make viewing certain things on YouTube illegal, China is.......China when it comes to the internet and N.Korea may aswell not have internet access at all.

A lot of Asia is very proud and culture orientated--much more than the West, for sure--and places like China upon first coming into serious contact with Western influences, saw them as inferior and worried they would damage their nation's thousands of years of cultural isolation. Where Europe packs many small and often very different cultures into a small area, creating a people who embrace difference, much of Asia is dominated by only a few groups.

Asia has been a very isolated area for quite a long time. Though things like the internet and television have opened their boarders somewhat, many countries inside that area are still slow to embrace the change. Make no mistake - progress is being made, it's just slow and has its ups and its downs.

 

[Meight08]

Shouldn't the law be more like
people under the age of 18 cannot be required to give their real name or age in order to sign up for online services.

Why thank you for saying i shouldn't be allowed to have fun playing games online
*grumbles*
Ageist *beep*

 

[Lunar Templar]

I just hope this doesn't blow back on Sony. It's not their fault this time.

no doubt, and 'Game Industry Promotion Act'? what exactly are they promoting when they're crippling they're own game industry?

 

[wooty]

Is it me or are the Asian nations getting really tight over online actions and content.

I read that Japan is doing something to make viewing certain things on YouTube illegal, China is.......China when it comes to the internet and N.Korea may aswell not have internet access at all.

I wonder if North Korea has it's own version of the internet, and using it is like using the web browser in GTAIV.

I think the GTA4 internet probably has a lot more content than the North Korean one

Is it me or are the Asian nations getting really tight over online actions and content.

I read that Japan is doing something to make viewing certain things on YouTube illegal, China is.......China when it comes to the internet and N.Korea may aswell not have internet access at all.

Asia has been a very isolated area for quite a long time. Though things like the internet and television have opened their boarders somewhat, many countries inside that area are still slow to embrace the change. Make no mistake - progress is being made, it's just slow and has its ups and its downs.

I get the whole strong traditonal and cutural links within Asia, I even welcome it at times, but for nations like South Korea and Japan to be introducing certain "censorship" elements and maintaining a mild xenophobia at this point just seems a little odd. Especially considering how advanced and intertwined with the west these countries are/have been.