Minecraft is one of the most successful games on the planet. The adventure sandbox title prides itself on its family-friendly content, creativity, and huge community which extends the world over. However, there is now one place that considers Minecraft R-rated because of a seemingly small change in accessing the game itself.
South Korea has technically marked Minecraft as 19+ content, following a change in Minecraft's access points. According to GamesIndustry.Biz and The Korea Herald, Mojang's Java version of the phenomenally popular title is now only accessible with an Xbox Live account in Korea - a service that requires you to be 19-years-old and above to use.
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Xbox Live in Korea is built just so because it was Microsoft's way of bypassing the "Cinderella law". In Korea, children and teens (up to 16) are not legally allowed to play games between 12am and 6am, so rather than introducing a screening process into Xbox Live, Microsoft decided to change the age rating of the service so children shouldn't technically be using it at all.
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Xbox Live accounts weren't required to play Minecraft until recently but Mojang Studio accounts were experiencing security issues. This led Microsoft to require Xbox Live accounts to play the game which is why it is now technically R rated despite its harmless content.
Understandably, this has caused some upset within gaming communities in Korea. According to The Korea Herald, a petition has gained the support of over 15,000 Koreans, who want to abolish the Cinderella law.
The government, however, is saying that Microsoft is to blame for this change. One government official says: "any responsible game company should make adjustments to different systems of different countries when it makes a policy change and make investments to protect its users."
However, when implementing ways to make sure children aren't using Xbox Live between 12am and 6pm, Microsoft would have other issues it would face. Currently in China, gaming giant Tencent is using facial recognition to prevent children from playing games and spending excessive amounts of money due to a similar law.
Featured Image Credit: Mojang