[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao Games has decided to re-run the pickup event for 'Kitasan Black,' the core of the controversy surrounding the mobile game 'Uma Musume Pretty Derby.' Following the replacement of the person in charge and the formation of an improvement task force (TF), the company is making every effort to win back users' trust by deciding to re-run the event.
On the 28th, Kakao Games announced through the official Uma Musume cafe, "We plan to re-run the gacha event that was held from July 25 to August 10 for a certain period."
The gacha event allowed game users to draw or exchange points for the 'Kitasan Black SSR,' a card considered essential due to its high performance among players. Kakao Games began server maintenance about three hours before the event ended, and users who had saved points until the last day missed the chance to exchange cards due to the sudden server maintenance.
As a result, game users started a rating bombing campaign and held a 'carriage protest,' which led to a meeting to discuss compensation measures. When no clear compensation plan was presented at the meeting, users proceeded with a refund lawsuit. On the 23rd, 201 Uma Musume users filed a damage compensation claim lawsuit against Kakao Games at the Seoul Central District Court, requesting refunds for the amounts spent on the game. This case is currently assigned to Civil Division 37 (Judge Jeon Kyung-ho).
According to the announcement on the same day, Kakao Games will re-run the gacha event for two days starting October 11 and will also restore the points held just before the problematic server maintenance. As the Uma Musume incident prolonged, Kakao Games is making every effort to turn back time to before the controversial gacha event.
On the 21st, just four days after a meeting with user representatives on the 17th, Kakao Games replaced a senior official and established an improvement TF directly under the CEO. They immediately began discussions with the developer Cygames regarding the gacha event and successfully led to the event's re-execution.
In addition, to improve and reinforce the game, they are promoting measures such as ▲separating suggestion and error boards ▲adding circle recruitment and room match boards ▲push notifications in Uma Musume tone on the home screen when TP/RP recover ▲adding missing information on the official website ▲Korean-style information disclosure videos based on Japan's Pakara Live TV concept ▲dialect translation ▲and a Google Play PC client version.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
