Krafton to refund PUBG players over inappropriate NewJeans mods

Industry

Published: 01 Jul. 2024, 15:44 Updated: 01 Jul. 2024, 15:47

Krafton to refund PUBG players over inappropriate NewJeans mods

An announcement on the collaboration between NewJeans and Krafton on June 10 to feature the girl groups' characters in PUBG. [KRAFTON]

Game publisher Krafton will refund users after banning certain outfits for avatars of girl group NewJeans in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), following complaints about gamers dressing the characters in inappropriate attire and striking provocative poses.

“We deeply regret any inconvenience and reputational damage caused to our players due to the changes we announced on June 20 regarding NewJeans’ character items,” the game publisher wrote on the PUBG online community site on Friday. “We apologize for not considering the impact and negative experience this would have on you in advance.

“Although our PUBG team decided to take these measures out of moral responsibility as a collaborative partner with the agency [ADOR], we have also made efforts to minimize inconvenience to our players during this process.”

Following the update on July 10, gamers will be restricted from dressing any of the five NewJeans avatars in 19 specific outfits, including short pants, skirts, bikinis and nightgowns.

A list of outfits that gamers will be banned from dressing NewJeans characters in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Consequently, gamers who purchased bundles containing these restricted outfits between June 12 and 27 can apply for a reimbursement in the form of in-game currency from Wednesday until Aug. 2.

Krafton and NewJeans’ agency ADOR announced a collaboration on June 12 to roll out various in-game items and outfits to customize the avatars of the group members in the PUBG update.

The collaboration, which was met with an enthusiastic response from players, turned into a dispute as users began to create and share provocative content by clothing the members’ avatars in revealing outfits.

Korea’s antitrust regulator also launched an investigation into the collaboration items on Monday following reports of misguiding probabilities for its loot box system, or in-game lucky draws.

“We are sincerely responding to the Fair Trade Commission’s investigation,” a Krafton spokesperson briefly commented.

The problem arose on complaints by users who did not receive a set reward even after purchasing more than five premium bundles related to NewJeans, which was the predefined number of unsuccessful attempts initially set by Krafton to acquire the prize.

The publisher responded on June 20 that the notification was incorrectly applied to the NewJeans premium bundle, and rectified the user interface from June 13.

Reimbursements related to the matter will be made from Wednesday.

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