Nexon to pay $16M to compensate MapleStory players for rigging loot boxes

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Nexon to pay $16M to compensate MapleStory players for rigging loot boxes

Published: 22 Sep. 2024, 18:03 Updated: 22 Sep. 2024, 19:21

CHO YONG-JUN
cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr

Nexon headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi [NEWS1]

Nexon will issue 21.9 billion won ($16 million) in compensation to some 800,000 MapleStory gamers who were affected by the company’s rigged loot box drop rates, the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) said Sunday.

The game publisher accepted the decision by the KCA’s Consumer Dispute Settlement Commission on Thursday to compensate MapleStory players regardless of whether they had participated in the collective dispute. It is the first time a company will compensate consumers who did not participate in a collective dispute since the system was introduced back in 2007.

Nexon originally accepted the settlement decision on Aug. 13 to compensate the 5,675 users that participated in a collective dispute. A total of 4,916 users have accepted the compensation, with the highest payout at over 10 million won.

Nexon will refund 3.1 percent of its Red Cube loot box purchases and 6.6 percent for Black Cube loot boxes for users who bought the two items from March 1, 2019, to March 5, 2021. The compensation will be made in Nexon Cash, which can be converted into won. Nexon Cash is the currency system used through the games published by the company.

Eligible gamers can sign up for the compensation from Monday to the end of 2024 on Nexon’s website.

Nexon was fined a record 11.5 billion won by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in January after the company altered its loot box odds for multiple years without notifying users of its hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game MapleStory and casual shooter game Bubble Fighter.

Cube, which accounted for around 30 percent of MapleStory’s total revenue, is a probability-based item that provides three random bonus effects for in-game items. The FTC investigation revealed that the company altered its probability percentage and algorithm to cut the chance of giving a preferred roll to users in 2011, a year after the Cube’s release. Nexon continued to alter the odds for its Cube items until 2016.

“Nexon Korea has been cooperative and responsive throughout the collective dispute investigation process and the company will continue to protect consumers’ rights and provide entertainment in a more responsible manner,” the company said, adding that they will also be providing in-game items to all MapleStory users “to repay the support.”

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]