One-man studio TrampolineTales has indeed been able to increase the limit of its mobile name Success be a Landlord in South Korea, although the rest of the game is not available in 12 other countries.
Success be a Landlord is a roguelike deck building game about earning money to pay rent using a slot machine where you will rotate symbols to generate other outcomes. However, the developer has always maintained that the game does not simulate gaming nor does it include microtransactions or real money gaming.
In the extreme generation, the game was blocked in 13 countries by Google for violating its gaming policies, followed by Apple. South Korea was one of the markets where the game was removed from app stores, where developer Dan DiIorio stated in a blog post that it “comes from a decent percentage of my game’s mobile revenue”, which He made it his government priority when he arrived. here to lift the brake.
To rectify the issue, DiIorio paid for a reclassification from South Korea’s Sports Management and Classification Committee (GRAC) and was given a 12+ rating by the organization, allowing him to return to Google Play games in January 2024.
However, in May 2024, GRAC expert DiIorio rerated the game as 19+, and the developer announced that all attempts to attract this decision had not been noticed.
DiIorio learned through Apple’s help that the game would be included back in the iOS App Bundle in South Korea if he uploaded the new GRAC rating to Apple’s backend. In its blog post, the developer said that similar options would appear more easily if it changed the world ranking of Success be a Landlord to 17+ for all areas.
“This stipulation seems ridiculous to me, but frankly, I’m not fighting this anymore,” he wrote. “I have complied with Apple and GRAC and now the game is again available on the App Store in South Korea.”
He then added that the situation is “terribly backwards” given the importance of real-money microtransactions and chance-based mechanics in titles like Genshin Affect and Madden, which are not rated higher than 13+.
“[Meanwhile] Non-real money gambling games like Balatro are rated 18+ and have to go through all this crap, simply because someone on a leaderboard saw a screenshot of a poker chip and said, ‘ Hey! That looks like a game of chance!'” DiIorio concluded.
“I’m sick of this, my next game won’t have any gambling theme. Congratulations to the leaderboards, you’ve successfully stifled creativity. It’s great that you’re doing something like this. excellent I work protecting children who are literally developing gambling addictions from loot boxes. Disgusting.”
Correction: In the past, this newsletter misspelled DiIorio as Dilorio, which has now been changed. We have also clarified that the 12+ rating granted in January 2024 was later reverted.
