Nexon, one of the most prolific developers in South Korea, has been handed a record-high $9 million fine for allegedly ‘misleading its customers’ in MapleStory. It has been claimed that Nexon pulled in a whopping $420 million over ten years in microtransactions, but while doing so, it was acting deceptively, changing the terms of its in-game probability structure without letting customers know, and giving them criminally low chances of unlocking equipment.
The Largest Fine Ever
A report published by the Korea Economic Daily stressed that this fine, imposed on Nexon by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, is the largest of its kind in history.
It has been claimed that Nexon – the developer of MapleStory – deliberately and knowingly altered the probability structure of ‘Cubes’, which are items that users can purchase in MapleStory for real money that can reset or upgrade the potential of in-game equipment. Not only that but Nexon failed to notify customers of the changes being made to the probability structure, and at the worst end of the scale, it was claimed that some of the best rewards were tweaked to never appear.
Essentially, that meant that users spending real-world cash on in-game purchases with the hope of landing a reward would never get what they desired.
It was in 2010 that Nexon introduced the ‘Cubes’ to MapleStory, and now, more than a decade later, the firm has been hit with a whopping fine that some feel isn’t representative of the amount of money Nexon has made from these microtransactions.
Reportedly, Nexon ‘humbly accepts’ the decision of the Korea Fair Trade Commission but will consider challenging it in court.
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