MapleStory developers Nexon fined for silently changing in-game item

Korean developers Nexon have been fined for silently altering in-game item probabilities and allegedly misleading players within the MMO MapleStory.

Free-to-play video games have become increasingly popular in the contemporary gaming landscape. With monstrous titles like Fortnite and League of Legends dominating the industry, many developers have followed suit, bringing in the free-to-play model monetization style.

Features like a battle pass have become commonplace in many online games, incentivizing players to continue playing to get the most rewards out of their time and money. For the most part, rewards purchased using real-life currency don’t come in the form of bonus power, meaning the playing field is still level amongst the player base.

However, certain titles betray this rule, essentially making the game a pay-to-win experience that only the wealthy can excel in. Nexon’s MapleStory can seemingly be considered one of those titles, with the devs recently being fined for silently changing a paid in-game item.

Nexon Korea was just fined 11.6 billion won (approximately $8.9 million USD) for allegedly misleading customers over in-game items in MapleStory.

“We imposed the largest fine because the Cube is a core product of the game (Maple Story), the violation period is long and this is the second violation (by Nexon)”, the Korea Fair Trade Commission said.

The antitrust body added Nexon had arbitrarily lowered the probability of drawing preferred items within the game. On top of this, they believe that Nexon also set the probability of winning some Cubes to zero without notice.

Cubes in MapleStory allow players to reroll an item’s potential, which grants the item massive power bonuses that drastically alter the effectiveness. Therefore these items are massively sought after, as players will always need Cubes if they’re looking to increase their power.

Nexon made 550 billion won between September 2010 and March 2021 from just the purchase of Cubes alone, showing how important this commodity is to the player base and Nexon’s finances.