Nexon Korea Corp.online game developer, was fined for 11.6 billion won (8.1 million euros) for allegedly deceiving its customers about in-game items for its online titles MapleStory and Bubble Fighter, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said. In response to the announcement, Nexon said it accepted the commission's decision but would consider appealing it or taking the matter to court.
The antitrust body said Nexon, the largest shareholder of Nexon Games Co., has arbitrarily lowered the probability that players extract valuable objects (called Cubes) and has set the probability of winning some of these to zero, without warning.
A Cube is a paid piece of equipment that restores or enhances the potential of equipment worn by characters in the game. Each Cube has different levels of potential.
What happened with Nexon Cubes
When Nexon has introduced Cube objects in May 2010set the probability of obtaining each version equally, but since September 2010 has changed the probability structure so that users' favorite versions appear less frequently.
From August 2011 to March 2021, the game company changed the odds structure again so that some fan-favorite options did not appear at all.
Nexon has grossed 550 billion won in provisional sales from cube sales between September 2010 and March 2021. Players pay approximately 2,000 won (€1.40) to extract a Cube.
The KFTC said Nexon failed to notify its customers of changes to the probability structure of Cube items. Indeed, in August 2011, it published a notice declaring that there had been no changes to the structure of the Cubes.
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