Korean game makers fined for misleading loot boxes

A South Korean government commission has fined three Korean game makers for misleading gamers with over-imagined winning chances at loot boxes. One of the punished game makers is developer Nexon, who mainly makes free-to-play online games.

In total, Nexon, Netmarble and NextFloor have been fined more than 767,000 euros, reports Korea Times. Nexon received by far the highest fine, converted more than 715,000 euros. The fines, the highest ever for such violations of the electronic commerce act in South Korea, have been imposed by the Korean Fair Trade Commission.

Players of the Nexon-made South Korean popular online game Sudden Attack were able to purchase loot boxes during an event to obtain 16 puzzle pieces, which gave them access to special items. However, the chance of getting a certain puzzle piece turned out to be 0.5 percent. According to the committee, Nexon deliberately did not disclose this low chance of winning. Each loot box cost about 70 euro cents, but due to the low chance of that one puzzle piece, a player would have even spent 350 euros.

Netmarble was also fined for misleading players about the odds of winning. In the online baseball game Ma9, the chance of receiving certain items would be ten times higher when players participated in a certain event, but in practice the chance was only increased by a factor of five. There was also talk of deception in the game Monster Taming. Netmarble sold lottery tickets to players to obtain monsters. The company said the odds of getting an unbeatable monster were “less than one percent,” when in practice it was 0.0005 percent.

Nexon has protested the fine, alleging the commission misread the rules of the event. The company is going to challenge the fine, according to The Korea Herald. Netmarble is also considering an appeal.