MMORPG deceives its players for 10 years regarding loot: They are now filing a class action lawsuit

The South Korean MMORPG company Nexon is known for video games like The Finals or MapleStory. In December 2023, it was hit with a record fine: The company had deceived players of an MMORPG about the chances of loot boxes for 10 years, decided a trade commission, imposing a fine of 8.1 million euros. Now, more than 1000 people are launching a class action lawsuit.

What is the scandal about?

• Nexon was accused of lying about the probabilities with which certain items drop from the loot boxes of the MMORPG MapleStory.
• At the launch in March 2010, all items had the same drop probability. This was changed in September 2010.
• The South Korean trade commission found: Particularly sought-after items had not come out of the cubes at all for over 10 years, between August 2011 and March 2021. However, Nexon denied having changed the probabilities.

The company sold the cubes for €1.40, generated almost €383.5 million in revenue over the 10 years, and was imposed a fine of €8.1 million. Nexon stated that it accepts the fine but reserves the right to contest the decision.

Players file class action lawsuit against Nexon over MapleStory

This is now the consequence: The fine against Nexon came through the trade oversight in South Korea. According to reports from South Korea, players of MapleStory have now filed a class action lawsuit against Nexon, seeking a refund of their expenditures and damages.

As of January 26, over 1000 people had joined this class action lawsuit, as reported by the site YTN.

The logic behind the lawsuit is: Had the buyers known the actual drop probabilities of the loot boxes, they would never have purchased them. They could not have guessed that the winning chances had been so manipulated.

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The plaintiffs apparently calculate good chances for their lawsuit, as the investigation by the trade commission has already brought the facts to light.

From South Korea, it is said: The implication of the lawsuit could have effects on other online games and how they handle the probabilities of comparable loot boxes.

More about the fraud case involving MapleStory, which we have reported extensively on MeinMMO: MMORPG defrauds players for 10 years shamelessly with loot boxes – Now has to pay record fine