Diablo 3 RMAH removed in Korean Version

For those that didn't know, there has been a huge fight going on with Blizzard and the South Korean GRB (the guys who age rate games in South Korea). Basically, due to the game having a way for players to extract real money from the game via the real money auction house (RMAH) they refused to give the game an age rating which meant that the game would not be allowed to be sold in South Korea.

Since this was announced, Blizzard have agreed that the Korean version of Diablo 3 will be sold without the RMAH. The whole RMAH part of the game will be cut from the Korean release and will be patched in at a later date when they come to an agreement with the South Korean GRB.

I found this very funny as you all know how much attention this topic got over here and in America, but the Koreans simply banning it made me laugh quite hard.

The game is still scheduled to make a global release in Q1 2012, with everyone getting the same version of the game apart from South Korean who get an RMAH free version, which in my opinion is the best version.

You can read about this on various links some of which you will need to translate a bit;

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=300475
http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=1073928&category=116&subcategory=
http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=41568

I await a post from Specter as I know he will find this funny.

Specter - Afaik, all versions of the game apart from the South Korean version will have the RMAH included at release.

The RMAH was cut from the South Korean version because they could not come to a deal with the South Korean GRB and it was either delay the game again, or cut the RMAH and release on time. They cut RMAH so they can release on time.

The Korean sites say that the South Korean GRB and Blizzard are still in talks, so I would expect the RMAH to be put back in at some point.

The whole thing comes down to gaming laws in South Korea set up to protect under 18's who play games. From what I have read, and I may be totally wrong here, the RMAH would need to only be accessible by over 18's in South Korea for it to be allowed back into their version. Which is why it is cut for now and will most likely be patched back in.

Then someone buys the item, you get the money but the item never turns up because your dead.

Omg what an epic way to rip people off, lol.