Nexon bigwig Min Kim recently checked in with Gamasutra for a brief interview regarding the state of the company's global free-to-play initiative. In short, business is booming, and while MapleStory was viewed as an oddity when it launched with a F2P model eight years ago, it's now much closer to the norm. "A lot of people laughed at the business model, and now a lot of companies are starting to try to understand it or experiment with it. We've been calling it 'the free2pocalypse.' Every company is looking at it; the market is just way larger," Kim explains.
He also talks a bit about Nexon's new Live Games division, which consolidates the company's operations, marketing, and communications groups into a single entity under his direction. Finally, Kim explains the logic behind the decision to remove Nexon's name from its uber-successful retail store game cards. In a nutshell, the benefits of unifying the virtual item currencies across a diverse selection of games outweighed the name recognition afforded by the Nexon banner.
Reader Comments (8)
Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:15PM Space Cobra said
"free2pocalypse"
This is just giving f2p-haters an easy term they can use while they howl at the moon! ;P
Otherwise, the gem-card philosophy is pretty much on-the-mark; people going specifically to buy such a card and not picking it up as one would do an impulse buy (although, I admit to sometimes picking up such cards on impulse, but normally to fill up on points, when I feel the impulse).
This is just giving f2p-haters an easy term they can use while they howl at the moon! ;P
Otherwise, the gem-card philosophy is pretty much on-the-mark; people going specifically to buy such a card and not picking it up as one would do an impulse buy (although, I admit to sometimes picking up such cards on impulse, but normally to fill up on points, when I feel the impulse).
Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:34PM Alex Oglitchkin said
The only thing I hate about the F2P model is the amount of garbage games that get pumped out trying to make a quick buck. It makes me think of the Wii for every 1 good game there is like 10 awful ones.
Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:25PM Raikulxox said
They're not laughing at you taking up F2P Nexon, they're laughing because you give the worst customer service known to man.
I kid you not, my Mabinogi character was locked out 6 weeks ago along with hundreds of others (just going by the complaining on the forums. I know it's in the thousands). They have shared nothing on the matter with us, and give no updates. Yet they still release events with rewards you can only get from them while they know characters are locked out. That, and the VIP package that costs $15 a month isn't working correctly since it's been introduced a few weeks ago. The features other Nexon's gave outside of NA were included for free in a game update (a new tab for quest items as inventory is sparse in Mabi). Nexon NA decides to include it only for those who pay the $15 a month VIP package. So yea, Nexon can't be taken seriously.
I kid you not, my Mabinogi character was locked out 6 weeks ago along with hundreds of others (just going by the complaining on the forums. I know it's in the thousands). They have shared nothing on the matter with us, and give no updates. Yet they still release events with rewards you can only get from them while they know characters are locked out. That, and the VIP package that costs $15 a month isn't working correctly since it's been introduced a few weeks ago. The features other Nexon's gave outside of NA were included for free in a game update (a new tab for quest items as inventory is sparse in Mabi). Nexon NA decides to include it only for those who pay the $15 a month VIP package. So yea, Nexon can't be taken seriously.
Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:27PM Raikulxox said
@Raikulxox Would like to add it isn't a ban. When you select your character to log in, it begins to load, but throws you back to the Title Screen with an error saying there was issues loading data, to log out and try again.
I have submitted a ticket for the issue, but I have two tickets from May that still hasn't been looked into.
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I have submitted a ticket for the issue, but I have two tickets from May that still hasn't been looked into.
Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:36PM Utakata said
The de-branding of their gamecards is a bit weird. But I'm not sure that will have any negative consequences to thier success.
Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:44PM Amlin said
I have nothing against F2P in fact I think it's a great business model, but companies like Nexon take to a level that shouldn't be crossed. They exemplify everything that many mmo gamers call F2P out on and that's the P2win abuse. If a company wants to make F2P games fine but don't look to Nexon as an example.







