FPB releases new tariffs, includes a fee for "Online Distributors"
Read these first: FPB new tariffs and this article
Gonna nip this is the bud before the usual shit storm happens.
This is, broadly speaking, a good thing. Practically this means distributors like the iStore, Steam, Humble etc do not need to go to the FPB to get their content rated if they already use a content rating system (like PEGI or the ESRB) to legally distribute games here. This also opens the door for players like Netlix, Hulu etc to legitimately enter into our market and offer products without having to deal with the FPB directly.
How does this affect you? It doesn't. Much like the e-vat issue it is the store fronts that will need to apply, so you as dev's should be unaffected.
That being said, there are some issues:
1) Online Distributor is undefined in any of the relevant legislation, this opens the system up for abuse by the FPB
2) There are no guidelines as to how the "executive committee" will determine the fee, and given the maximum is R750,000.00 this is a big issue
3) There appears to be no rational as to why the fee should be this high
Gonna nip this is the bud before the usual shit storm happens.
This is, broadly speaking, a good thing. Practically this means distributors like the iStore, Steam, Humble etc do not need to go to the FPB to get their content rated if they already use a content rating system (like PEGI or the ESRB) to legally distribute games here. This also opens the door for players like Netlix, Hulu etc to legitimately enter into our market and offer products without having to deal with the FPB directly.
How does this affect you? It doesn't. Much like the e-vat issue it is the store fronts that will need to apply, so you as dev's should be unaffected.
That being said, there are some issues:
1) Online Distributor is undefined in any of the relevant legislation, this opens the system up for abuse by the FPB
2) There are no guidelines as to how the "executive committee" will determine the fee, and given the maximum is R750,000.00 this is a big issue
3) There appears to be no rational as to why the fee should be this high
Comments
[quote = @dislekcia]does this mean that we're now required to have FPB ratings to sell in SA on any platform at all, including our own websites?[/quote]
Technically you've always been required to do it, but frankly I don't see this actually changing anything for developers selling from their own site (mainly because the FPB has no capacity to actually enforce this). One of the issues is "online distributor" isn't defined so I don't know who the FPB expects to pay this fee. They might try and strong arm devs to get one if they sell games from their sites, but I honestly I just don't know. I'm trying to get clarity on this point though. Will give feedback as soon as I've got anything