Input 2021.03.12 14:50
Controversy over’probability-type items’ turned away, increasing user dissatisfaction
“An increase in annual salary will be paid by users in the end”
As major domestic game companies such as Nexon and NCsoft have greatly increased employee salaries, game users who are dissatisfied with probabilistic items are voicing such criticism, saying, “Isn’t the salary increase eventually lead to an increase in the price of paid items?” .
According to the game industry on the 12th, on the 1st of last month, after Nexon announced that it would increase the annual salary of all employees by 8 million won, 11 game companies announced plans to increase their annual salary by the day before. Specifically, they are Nexon, NCsoft, Netmarble, Krafton, Gameville, Com2uS, Smilegate, Webzen, Joycity, Neowiz, Vespa, etc.
The salary increase ranges from a minimum of 6 million won (Neowiz) to a maximum of 20 million won (Webzen and Krafton). The average increase in the development job group of 11 companies amounted to 11 million won. The average number of non-development workers is 8.28 million won. In the case of NCsoft, which announced the plan to raise the salary the day before, a separate bonus condition was also imposed. It is said that 8 million won is paid to all employees as a special bonus for maximum performance. If a special incentive is added to the annual salary increase, the salary increase will jump to 21 million won for the developer and 18 million won for the non-development worker.
The trend of increase in employee salaries by game companies is a desirable phenomenon in terms of ESG (environmental, social, governance) management that distributes performance to employees. However, it is argued that it is not appropriate as the voices of criticism on probability-type items, which are the main sources of revenue by game companies, continue. Game companies are complaining that they are having a salary feast with the money earned with probability-type items that are suspected to be manipulated.
Last year, major game companies such as Nexon, Netmarble, and NCsoft recorded the highest sales ever. This is because the demand for games has exploded as the non-face-to-face culture has established due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
Nexon opened the era of annual sales of 3 trillion won for the first time with sales of 3.13 trillion won last year, and Netmarble also recorded 2,484.8 billion won in sales, up 14% from the previous year. NCsoft also recorded sales of 2,4162 trillion won, achieving its first annual sales of 2 trillion won since its inception.
The problem is that a large portion of domestic game companies’ sales rely on probabilistic items. The main sources of revenue for these companies are role-playing games (RPGs) with a high proportion of probability items. In the case of Nexon, Maple Story, Dungeon & Fighter, Mabinogi, and Land of the Wind are known to account for 70% of sales.
At NCsoft, 88% of last year’s annual sales came from Lineage, Lineage 2, Lineage M, Lineage 2M, Blade & Soul, Aion, and Guild Wars 2. For Netmarble, RPG genres such as Seven Knights 2, Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, and Lineage 2 Revolution accounted for 64% of sales.
The monthly fee for these games and the proportion of fixed-priced items were reported to be less than 5%. In the end, it is interpreted that 80% of game company sales depend on probabilistic item sales.
Game users are showing displeasure at the news of game companies’ salary increases. In the actual game company’s annual salary increase article, “Pay the annual salary of game company employees in a probability type” “Probability of the appearance of special incentives is 0.00001%” “According to the position, the probability of an annual salary increase should be set at 0.1~3%” “Probability from employee to representative Most of the comments are mixed with ridicule, such as “Sell the promotion ticket set to”.
NCsoft Lineage 2M user A said, “I am angry at the appearance of having a salary feast among themselves while ignoring the voices of criticism about the probability-type item.”
There are also voices of concern that game companies may raise the price of new items due to the increase in salary. Game companies can also increase the price of new items or service fees (monthly fee, etc.) to offset the labor expenditure caused by the increase in annual salary. In this case, all the burden of raising the salary will eventually be borne by game users.
“Without a systematic system, competition between companies has decided to raise the salary, so controversy about the annual salary increase may arise,” said Wi Jeong-Hyun, president of the Korean Game Society (Chung-Ang University Business Administration). “All burdens can be directed to users, and new items can be added. There is a high possibility of raising the price of the item by putting it out at a high price,” he said.