Gravity facing probe over Ragnarok loot box discrepancies

Logo for Gravity's online game Ragnarok [GRAVITY]

Korea’s antitrust regulator announced on Monday that it is looking into the game publisher Gravity to determine whether the company violated newly enforced policies regarding the so-called loot box system.

The probe is the first into the issue by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) since it released a set of regulations on March 22 pertaining to the loot box system, which is an in-game lucky draw purchased by players that may or may not be favorable to their gaming situation.

Korean game companies have faced significant criticism from domestic gamers for their lack of transparency regarding the model, with accusations of manipulating probabilities for their financial benefit.

A major change by the FTC that went into effect last month requires game publishers to publicly disclose information regarding loot box items within the services of mobile and online games, such as the probability data.

Gravity, behind the online game Ragnarok, updated information regarding loot box items on the game’s homepage on March 20 — stating that there was “probability data for some items that did not match” what the company previously disclosed.

The list of items exceeded 100.

The probability data for certain items underwent significant changes, dropping from the previous 0.8 percent to 0.1 percent. This meant that consumers were actually eight times less likely to acquire valuable items but were kept uninformed until now.

“When we need to disclose the probability data, we verify it through simulations, but there were some shortcomings in the procedure,” Gravity explained.

Unpersuaded, gamers took to the FTC to file a complaint alleging that the company is tampering with their loot box model.

The regulator is also looking into securing more information through on-site investigations.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]