Korean Game Industry Required to Redesign Amid Trust Costs and Regulatory Risk
Korea Game User Association filed 5 game companies (111percent, Com2uS, CookApps, Sesisoft, Gravity) with the Fair Trade Commission for Electronic Commerce Act violations and simultaneously filed user damage relief with the Game Rating and Administration Committee -- representing 863 users of "Woonbbalgon" and 493 users of "Com2uS Pro Baseball V26." Three restructuring directions emerging: (1) Increasing predictable revenue -- strengthening battle pass and subscription products to secure "monthly recurring revenue"; reducing peak revenue from gacha while raising the floor of cash flow to reduce volatility; (2) Reducing or changing the nature of probability elements -- moving gacha from primary to supplementary; increasing certainty through guaranteed rewards (pity systems), exchange systems, and direct-purchase cosmetics; the core is increasing structures where "users can calculate expected value" to reduce trust costs; (3) Expanding revenue portfolio beyond the game itself -- advertising, IP licensing, merchandise/collaborations, external channel-based monetization; simultaneously diversifying regulatory and public opinion risk. The convergent direction: awareness is spreading that excessive dependence on gacha carries greater risk than before. This does not mean gacha BM disappears -- but it can no longer be evaluated by profitability alone; volatility, regulatory risk, and trust costs must all be factored in.
