Korea Game Leaks

Ah, the good old GRAC, South Korea's video game ratings board. It's short for Game Rating and Administration Committee.

For years now, this organisation has been "leaking" unannounced games of all shapes and sizes. Basically, when the GRAC lists something, you know it's real — and it's probably only a matter of time until it's officially revealed.

But why does the GRAC out these projects in the first place? Is it just a recurring clerical error, or is there something dodgy going on?

Well, we finally have an answer — and unfortunately, the truth isn't quite as exciting as you may have hoped.

Korean website GameMeca (as per Automaton) has done us all a massive solid and investigated the situation. Turns out, it all comes down to South Korean law.

Yes, these often extremely high profile "leaks" happen because the GRAC has to make them public by law. Or more specifically, because of the Game Industry Promotion Act.

Publishers might not like it, but the GRAC can only keep a game secret during its actual review period — the time when it's being assessed and assigned an age rating.

Once that rating has been submitted and approved, the information must be made publicly available. And so that's why so many titles pop into existence at seemingly random times.

In short, if companies want their game to be sold in South Korea, they need to submit to this process, in the knowledge that their unannounced project could (and probably will) be blown open.

So there you have it. Unless South Korea changes its laws at some point in the near future, these perfectly legal "leaks" are going to keep happening.

[source gamemeca.com, via automaton-media.com]