Over 30 Roblox games are no longer available in South Korea after failing to comply with a government game rating committee. And it’s starting to look like this is only the beginning as South Korea’s committee catches up. The Roblox Corporation published a post in Korean that we’ve used Google Translate to get a general idea of. According to the Google Translation, the South Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee requested the removal of certain content.
The Roblox games impacted supposedly make up only 2% of the total playtime in South Korea. One example includes one of the top games, Brookhaven RP, with 772,000 players currently. The developer, Wolfpaq, explained in their Discord why South Korea banned it, “Roblox told me that Korea banned Brookhaven because you can rob the bank and stores.”
Another game affected by the South Korean ban is Gunfight Arena. The developer wasn’t given any specific reasoning by Roblox regarding their game’s non-compliance. All they know is that Gunfight Arena was named as part of a first batch of restricted games. Which implies that the Game Rating and Administration Committee may ban more Roblox games.
Without information from Roblox or South Korea, it’s impossible for game developers to comply. And as such, South Korean players will no longer be able to play those games. We’ve reached out to other developers impacted by the ban to see if they’ve received any guidelines or information regarding their game. Thus far, one developer we’ve contacted wasn’t informed that their game was banned.
The way many developers are learning about the ban is via South Korean players bringing it up in each game’s Discord channel. While one developer for a popular Roblox game called Sol’s RNG, took to the official Roblox Studio Community Discord to voice their concerns, “I honestly don’t know the criteria for blocking a game. I’m worried that my game will be banned in Korea too.”
A screenshot from [W9] Skateboard Obby on Roblox showing loot crates.
If you try to search for a banned game in South Korea, it won’t appear. However, if you enter the game’s URL directly, you’ll see a message that states, “This experience is unavailable in your region to comply with regulations.”
In July, Roblox began enforcing guidelines due to the United Kingdom going after loot boxes in games. Unlike the South Korean bans, developers were given a chance to disable loot boxes for United Kingdom players. As opposed to immediately and completely disabling the experience for those players.
While we’ve reached out to Roblox for a list of the games banned in South Korea, we’ve confirmed the following ones thus far:
- Gunfight Arena
- Brookhaven RP
- Zombie Survival Garry’s Mod
- Hellmet
- Allusions
- Ro-Ghoul
- Toilet Verse Tower Defense
- Pets Trading
- Survive the Killer!
- World Roleplay
- Mining Simulator
- The Wild West
- Da Hood
- Pull a Friend [2 Players]
- Sorcerer Battlegrounds
- Wave Defense: Overdrive!
- GEF
- Swordburst 2
- Shoot and Eat Noobs
- Thief Simulator
- Project Baki 3
- Skateboard Obby
Another dilemma that South Korean Roblox players are facing is whether or not they’ll receive refunds for money they’ve spent on banned games. We’ve asked Roblox for information regarding refunds as well and will update you if we hear back.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.