MMO dev fined record-breaking $9 million fee for misleading players over microtransactions

The developer behind Korean MMO MapleStory has been fined just under $9 million for violating South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.

As reported by the Korean Economic Daily, Nexon, who develops hit games like MapleStory and Bubble Fighter, has been handed down a fine for violating the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce. The fine is the equivalent of $8.9 million USD, making it the largest ever fine of its kind in South Korea.

The fine effectively boils down to Nexon having altered the odds of certain items dropping from in-game purchased, without telling its players. The developer was said to have "arbitrarily" altered the odds of certain Cubes dropping for MapleStory players without giving players a warning before they purchased randomized microtransactions. 

In fact, Nexon is even alleged to have dropped the odds of obtaining certain Cubes to zero for MapleStory players without informing them. This means players would shell out 2,000 Won for a shot at obtaining an item that was never actually available to them to begin with.

Cubes were first introduced to MapleStory back in May 2010, the Korean Economic Daily notes, and at the time, the chance of obtaining all the different types of Cubes were equal. This changed just a few months later, however, when certain Cubes had their probably of appearance dropped in September 2010, making them rarer and harder to obtain for players.

In 2018, Nexon was fined 939 million Won, around $717,000 USD, for giving out false information surrounding microtransactions in another game, Sudden Attack. With this new fine, Nexon reportedly said it has accepted the fine, but hasn't ruled out legally challenging it.

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