Amid controversy over probability errors that led to full refunds for "Raising Maple," Nexon replaced the head of the MapleStory IP organization, and Kang Dae-hyun, Nexon Korea's co-CEO, will concurrently serve as Deputy Minister.
On Feb. 2, Nexon said in an internal notice issued in the name of its executives that CEO Kang Dae-hyun will serve as Deputy Minister of the Maple Division. The Maple Division is the organization that oversees the development and overall operation of games based on Nexon's flagship intellectual property (IP), "MapleStory."
Through this personnel move, Nexon's management said it will directly inspect the overall operation of "Raising Maple" and comprehensively improve the development environment and internal processes. It also emphasized that it will spare no support and investment to restore user trust.
The previous head of the Maple Division was removed from the post along with some managers for management responsibility. Nexon explained that it will carry out additional investigations and follow up with measures corresponding to the results.
"Raising Maple" is an idle mobile game co-developed by Nexon and AbleGames and released in Nov. last year. It became a hit, topping sales on both major app markets right after launch. However, since the start of this year, a series of probability-related errors and operational issues have come to light, placing it at the center of controversy.
In particular, in the "Ability" system, which uses paid currency to randomly reset stats, the maximum value did not appear for a month due to a code error, and after it was later fixed without prior notice, user backlash intensified. Controversy also arose over the issue of attack speed values not reflecting actual performance and the failure to disclose probabilities for the paid probability-based item "Fast Hunting Ticket."
As the controversy spread, Nexon decided on full refunds, a rare step in the domestic gaming industry. The refunds cover all payments made from the game's release through the 28th of last month. The industry estimates that "Raising Maple" generated about 150 billion won to more than 200 billion won in sales during that period.