An employee belonging to Netmarble's subsidiary has been caught abusing developer privileges to generate high-priced game items inappropriately and cash them out, causing controversy. Netmarble has apologized for the incident and stated that it will significantly strengthen its internal control system.
On the 10th, Netmarble announced through an official notice that a developer, referred to as Mr. A, from its subsidiary Netmarble N2 had inappropriately generated the item '+10 anti-gravity drive' within the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) 'RF Online Next' by directly accessing the game databases and had sold a total of 16 of them for approximately 5 million won.
The problematic game has been a popular title that has maintained a high ranking in app markets since its domestic release in March. Netmarble stated that after receiving related reports through its customer service on the 6th, it analyzed transaction logs to identify Mr. A's abnormal item generation and trading activities.
Netmarble immediately excluded Mr. A from work and took measures to permanently suspend and seize the account, and plans to hold him accountable both civilly and criminally by referring the case to the disciplinary committee. At the same time, the company plans to recover all abnormal items distributed by Mr. A and compensate affected users for the purchase costs and existing equipped items.
A Netmarble representative said, "The sale of abnormal items has been confirmed as a personal act of deviation by an internal employee, and action for strong sanctions and civil and criminal accusations against that employee is also planned," adding, "Netmarble will do its best to normalize as quickly as possible, and sincerely apologizes for the concern and inconvenience caused to users who love 'RF Online Next.'