Owner of Dave the Diver and The Finals Fined $9 Million
Nexon must pay nearly $9 million for unfair changes it made to MapleStory. This is yet another fine imposed on the company by the Korean commission.
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Nexon once again got in trouble with the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC for short). As reported by KED Global, owner of such hits as Dave the Diver and The Finals (the companies that developed these games are subsidiaries of Nexon) must pay as much as 11.6 billion South Korean won, or about $8.9 million.
This time the KFTC punished the unfair practices the conglomerate used in MapleStory. This is a popular free-to-play MMORPG with no shortage of microtransactions. So-called gacha mechanics are present in the game (they appear in many other titles of this type, including, Genshin Impact), which enable the player to buy random items with real money.
In 2010, Nexon introduced various types of cubes to MapleStory. Some of them can be obtained for free, simply by playing, but some - especially the better ones, resetting equipment bonuses - will be obtained only after paying.
In the beginning, the developers set an equal probability of receiving all types of "premium" cubes. However, from September 2010 to 2021, the company reduced the chance a player has to get these more popular items. This ultimately led to the fact that - after paying - some cubes could not be obtained at all. Nexon did not inform fans about these radical changes in the probability structure, despite the fact that there is an official website with the "drop" rates of individual cubes.
Because of this, now the company must face the consequences. The amount of the fine is the highest ever imposed for violating the Consumer Protection Act in South Korea. According to the KFTC Nexon's actions were treated so harshly mainly because the publisher had been engaging in similar practices in the past. In 2018, the company had to pay a fine amounting to $850,000 due to the fact that it set the probability of receiving items from crates in Sudden Attack too low and failed to inform the players about it.
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