The Korea Game Users Association signaled a class-action lawsuit against WEBZEN over allegations of manipulated probabilities in the mobile game "MU Archangel," after the Fair Trade Commission imposed a penalty surcharge.
On the 1st, the Korea Game Users Association issued a joint statement with the "WEBZEN game victims' group," saying it welcomed the FTC's action and stated accordingly. The FTC said the previous day that it viewed WEBZEN as having sold probability-based items in "MU Archangel" while falsely informing users of the chance of obtaining components or concealing and omitting facts, and announced it had imposed a corrective order along with a 158 million won penalty surcharge.
The association had previously joined forces with the "victims' group" formed by users of games serviced by WEBZEN, including "MU Archangel," "MU Origin," and "The Eminence in Shadow," and since last year has staged billboard truck protests and solo demonstrations. The association said the penalty surcharge imposed by the FTC on WEBZEN was in contrast to the four game companies Gravity, Wemade, Krafton, and Com2uS, which were only fined 2.5 million won.
It added that beyond this matter, suspicions that "MU Archangel" concealed option caps, the abrupt service shutdown of "The Eminence in Shadow," and the "super account" allegations in "MU Origin" are still under investigation by the FTC.
The association also said it intends to file a civil lawsuit on behalf of game consumers. The association said that despite the FTC's sanctions, more than 95% of victims have received no compensation, and noted that while revenue from the illegal acts was tallied at about 6.7 billion won, the penalty surcharge was only 160 million won, making a civil suit inevitable for meaningful recovery. It added that it plans to gather game users who suffered damage as soon as possible and file a class-action suit.