MapleStory devs fined $8.9 million for ‘misleading players’ with gacha probabilities

Nexon, the infamous developers of MapleStory, Bubble Fighter, and Sudden Attack, has been fined $8.9 million by the Korea Fair Trade Commission on Jan. 3 for allegedly misleading players with the probability structures of its core in-game items.

In recent years, players have seen a surge in gacha games, where the probability of obtaining a high-grade item, character, or piece of equipment is minimal. For a chance to get one of these items, players will generally have to buy and open capsules or chests. This holds true in MapleStory too, where this core paid item is called ‘cubes.’ The probability of getting these high-grade items or upgrades is typically listed in-game on the gacha item or a developer’s website, so players can see their likelihood of getting this item. However, according to The Korea Economic Daily, Nexon allegedly changed the probability structure for the cubes in MapleStory without letting players know, leading to them being fined $8.9 million by the KFTC.

The cube is a paid item in MapleStory that resets or upgrades the worn equipment potential for a character. Each cube has a different potential value. However, between 2011 and 2021, Nexon allegedly changed this probability so highly preferred items wouldn’t appear. So, players who spent 2,000 won to buy a cube for the highly-desired items were forking over money for what was actually a zero percent chance. What makes this worse is during these 10 years, Nexon earned 550 billion won from selling these cubes, and players had no idea they were handing over their hard-earned money for nothing (unless you count false hope).

This isn’t the first time Nexon has done something like this. In 2018, Nexon received 939 million won in government fines because of misleading information about the lottery items in Sudden Attack, its online shooter game.

Although these allegations are just that, ‘allegations,’ players are happy to see Nexon feeling the consequences of its greedy actions. However, they believe the fine was too little considering how much money Nexon may have made by lying about the probability rates.

It may be wishful thinking, but hopefully, Nexon sees these huge MapleStory fines as a lesson to learn from and will improve its drop-rate transparency from now on.