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Luck be a Landlord is banned in South Korea (again)

Luck be a Landlord is banned in South Korea (again)

Previously, Luck be a Landlord was banned on the Google Play Store in 13 countries, with Google stating that Luck be a Landlord "contains content that doesn't comply with the Gambling policy."

One of those countries was South Korea, where more than 20% of my game's mobile revenue was coming from. While it sucks to have the game banned anywhere, I focused most of my efforts getting the game unbanned in South Korea for financial reasons. To do this, I paid the South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee (or GRAC) to get the game officially rated there. I had mixed feelings about doing this, as the organization was found to have been corrupt, but I didn't have much of a choice. In January, they stated the game was suitable for ages 12 and up, and it was subsequently unbanned on the Google Play Store in South Korea.

Luck be a Landlord's initial GRAC rating, received in January of 2024.

I had hoped this would be the end of this ordeal. It wasn't.

A few days ago, I received an email from GRAC stating that the game was re-rated to be only suitable for ages 19 and up.

One of the emails from GRAC, sent on May 23rd, 2024.

I was told that if I disagreed with this decision I should file an objection, which I did. I was ignored and the game is now going to get banned in South Korea on the Apple App Store (which was completely unaffected until I applied for a GRAC rating) this week, and will likely be re-banned on the Google Play Store as well.

A message from Apple, sent on May 29th, 2024.

I hope this doesn't affect the Steam version of the game, but I genuinely have no idea what will happen next.

I don't have it in me to keep trying to get this fixed. My apologies to fans of my game in South Korea who want to play it on mobile. There's nothing more I can do.