South Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) has repeatedly disclosed details about unreleased games, including high-profile AAA titles, leading many media outlets to jokingly call it “delivering news on a platter.” In the past month alone, games such as Persona 4 Revival and LEGO: Skylines had their existence revealed this way, and the latest ratings have fueled rumors of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 ports, though publishers have yet to confirm anything.
As reported by GameMeca, which recently delved into this recurring problem, the GRAC isn’t actually mishandling confidentiality requests from developers. Instead, a somewhat conflicting legal framework is at play. A GRAC spokesperson explained to GameMeca that publishing ratings is a mandatory process under South Korean law, specifically the Game Industry Promotion Act.
It turns out that the rating committee can only honor publishers’ confidentiality requests while games are being reviewed. Once a rating decision is made—whether approval or rejection—the GRAC is legally required to publish it publicly on its website and the government gazette. The committee does inform companies about this policy upfront when confidentiality is requested, meaning the disclosed information isn’t technically a leak. However, developers have little choice but to accept these terms if they wish to launch their games in South Korea. This situation has even caused local gamers to worry that international studios may view the Korean market as unreliable, but the root issue appears to be the existing law, not the rating board itself.