The popular game, Pokemon GO may be released in Singapore, but its stay here may be a short-lived one. That is according to the Communications and Information Minister, Yaacob Ibrahim. The Straits Times quoted him as saying:
“We have to study very, very carefully whatever that is brought into Singapore. We will monitor the situation, how this particular game is being played and… its impact on society. And if it’s really something which we should be concerned about I think MDA will definitely decide on what are the things we can do best, if the game is really needed here, how… we can do it in such a way that it becomes a win-win situation.”
The Co-founder, CEO and Creative Director of gaming hardware company, Razer Inc, Yan Min-Liang, in a Facebook post however, has claimed that the Government has been hypocritical in wanting to support the gaming industry.
He said: “The government extols how it wants to support the gaming industry and cultivate creativity in the country. Newsflash: No one’s going to be creative in a place where you’re going to arbitrarily ban games because it offends some of your sensitivities because you’re still living in the 19th century.”
The CEO also pointed to the past actions by the Singapore Government against the Gaming community here and said:
“Back in the day, the censorship board arbitrarily banned Counterstrike for “excessive violence” – and banned Mass Effect because a blue skinned alien woman could kiss another woman (homophobic much?). Fortunately both bans were lifted after much outcry from the gamers – but hey, if they weren’t, think about how some of the biggest games in the world would’ve been banned in Singapore.”