Apple Inc. has blocked games that violate local regulations from being sold through the Korean version of its App Store, industry sources said yesterday.
Under local regulations, all games sold in the country must first be reviewed and approved by the Game Rating Board.
In order to comply with local regulations, Apple removed the games category from the Korean version of the App Store.
However, some developers had been bypassing the law by marketing games through the entertainment category, and Apple had not until now taken any measures to prevent such transactions, prompting the Game Rating Board to consider stronger measures.
As the situation took a more serious turn, Apple responded by removing unapproved games and notifying the developers of the actions taken.
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According to sources, the majority of games not reviewed by the Game Rating Board have been blocked and the company plans to continue applying similar measures to games posted without Game Review Board approval.
While Apple and the authorities wrestled over legal technicalities, the Korean version of the App Store had been growing increasingly popular with local developers since KT Corp. introduced the iPhone to the local market.
The number of applications locally developed or adapted for Korean users downloadable from Apple Inc.`s App Store rose above 3,000 as of yesterday.
With iPhones proving to be a big hit with local consumers with about 240,000 iPhones being sold so far, the application market has also received a boost with applications produced by local developers and foreign applications adopted for the local market being uploaded at a rate of about 100 per day.
At the time of the iPhone`s local launch on Nov. 28 there were about 100 such applications available on the App Store.
The top paid application is WhatsApp Messenger, which allows iPhone users to send messages and files to each other at no additional cost, followed by the locally developed game Coast Defense-Reloaded, which according to the seller is ranked among the top 100 paid applications in more than 40 countries.
The top free application is a spot-the-difference game, followed by photo editing software and a background music and image program.
(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)



By Choi He-suk