Indonesia Requires Game Companies To Register With Local Government

Indonesia has introduced regulations that see game companies looking to do business in the country registering with the government to do business in the country.

In a report published by Niko Partners, they mentioned the addition of regulation no. 5 of 2020 on Penyelenggara Sistem Elektronik Swasta (PSE) or Private Electronic System Providers.

It covers any software offering services or doing business in Indonesia, and covers not just mobile games but also PC games and social media apps as well.

This regulation would see developers and other companies registering via the PSE website, and repeated failure to do so will ultimately be met with access termination in the country.

According to the website it’s not entirely binary either, since there is a category for services that have been temporarily halted, too.

Currently over 280 foreign entities have registered with the list, with more recent games like Dislyte and older titles like Konosuba: Fantastic Days both being on the register.

According to the Niko Partners report, this move may draw some criticisms, as part of the registration involves handing over user information to the Indonesian Government, as well as legal vulnerabilities saying companies would be “prone to lawsuits” if found “disturbing public order”.

Unlike the regulations in China, which require games to have explicit approval on a title-by-title basis, it doesn’t look like there will be any kind of content screening for approval- though it seems likely that the disturbing public order clause can probably be used for revocation of permission if deemed necessary.

Indonesia is a hot country to watch in the SEA region, commonly ranked as the largest market among the countries there.

According to Appmagic, the top 5 games in Indonesia generated over 6 million USD in revenue in the past month, with titles like Mobile Legends and Garena Free Fire dominating the charts there.

While not mentioned explicitly, the Niko Partners report does say this move could also see more “fair” taxation of foreign entities in the country.

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