Over 10 Billion Won Fine Imposed, MapleStory Management Announces "Suspension of Probability-Based Enhancement Item Sales"

Paid item 'Cube' probability manipulation controversy has led to Nexon being fined over 10 billion KRW by the Fair Trade Commission, and Nexon has declared the suspension of sales of probability-based enhancement items.

According to the related industry on the 10th, Nexon MapleStory management announced through an online broadcast the previous afternoon that "we will no longer sell probability-based enhancement items." This announcement came one week after the FTC's sanction.

They added, "From now on, potential ability resets will be done using the in-game currency 'Mesos.' Remaining Cubes can still be used, but all sales and production channels for existing Cubes will be discontinued."

Furthermore, to prevent the oversupply of Mesos caused by botting or macro users, they stated, "There will be level-based limits on the total amount of Mesos a character can acquire daily from the field," and "We will establish a research center jointly with domestic and international security experts and professors to advance security technology."

In addition, they plan to lift the restriction on the appearance of popular options, which was cited by the FTC as a reason for sanctions, allowing up to three duplicates to appear simultaneously. They explained that these changes will be showcased on a separate test server as soon as possible and will be implemented in the game by next month at the latest.

The Cube, at the center of the controversy, is an enhancement item used to randomly reset up to three potential abilities attached to equipment items in MapleStory. According to the FTC, Cube sales account for 30% of MapleStory's total revenue.

The FTC explained that when Nexon introduced the Cube product, the appearance probabilities for each option were set evenly, but from September 2010, the probability structure was changed so that popular options preferred by users appeared less frequently.

Meanwhile, on the 3rd, the FTC imposed corrective orders and a fine of 11.642 billion KRW on Nexon Korea for violations of the Electronic Commerce Act.