This is one of the stories I missed early on when I took a break (from most everything gaming related) for a few weeks. This scandal was big news in the South Korea gaming press though at the start of this year; when the KFTC (Korea Fair Trade Commission) fined NEXON for misleading customers of MapleStory (and Bubble Fighter) when it came to paid (real money) in-game items (Cubes) that were supposed to increase the chances of getting upgrades, of not really doing that. It’s just one of the typical RNG based cash shop mechanics you see in KMMO’s. This Korea Economic Daily article summarizes the issue (since I really don’t want to rehash this).
The thing is that NEXON lied publicly about this system and its probabilities over a long period of time, and it was prior complaints/refund requests by players that prompted NEXON to talk about this before (which ultimately led to the KFTC getting involved with a formal investigation).
While they were fined (the biggest fine to be levied), it’s actually a joke. Over the course of a nearly 10-year period (September 2010 – March 2021), the company pulled in approximate sales of Cubes of around 550 billion KRW or $419 million in USD based on the exchange rate as of this posting. The fine levied was a mere 11.6 billion KRW or $8.8 million USD. Without more severe consequences (like say criminal prosecution of executives, producers, etc), that’s not even a deterrent.
Unfortunately, many of these large Korean companies are also huge conglomerates (many often times family run) known as chaebols. NEXON is no different. Back in 2019, NEXON’s original founder Kim Jung-ju (aka Jay Kim) was looking to sell 99% of the holding company (NXC Corporation). He came from a long of KAIST graduates that drove a lot of the original venture capitalist tech-wave in South Korea (more specifically in the online computer gaming space/KMMO’s). NXC Corporation itself was founded as a way to consolidate most of his and his families majority holdings in NEXON. This sale was later withdrawn since he could not find a suitable buyer. Kim Jung-ju also passed away at the young age of 54 in February 2022 while vacationing in Hawaii. While the cause has never been fully disclosed, it seemed that Kim was going through a long period of depression (which had gotten worse during the time of his passing).
Digressing, because of the immense power/influence/connections many of these chaebol conglomerates have, corruption and other issues are often times swept under the table or accountability being a slap on the wrist. When I look at this superficial fine/lack of other severe consequences, this comes to mind. Sure, NEXON has lost a lot of trust from a lot of their player base with this recent scandal, but it remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have longer term (because most of us are also familiar with the “battered syndrome” aspect the gaming industry (worldwide) has long inflicted on its customers where players still fall for the same old BS.
