“The game philosophy behind the scenes in front of high profits”… ‘Donson (money + Nexon)’ trapped in a probability item trap

Input 2021.03.08 16:36

Nexon declares’Taldonson’ three years ago in criticism of speculative induction
Still estimated as 80% probability item of total sales
“Industrial growth needs to be developed with IP and various revenue structures”

Nexon, which recently announced that it will disclose all relevant information due to the speculative controversy of probability-type items, has already declared’Tal Donson’ in 2018, three years ago. ‘Donson (money + Nexon)’ is a sarcastic term for Nexon’s profit strategy, which makes you spend money on games. At the time, there were not a few criticisms of inducing excessive cash payments toward Nexon. For this reason, Nexon showed a willingness to improve the profit structure that relies on probabilistic items at the company level.

Earlier in 2014, Nexon participated in the nation’s largest game show G-Star and raised the slogan’Donson’s Counterattack’. Nexon CEO Lee Jeong-heon, who was the head of the business division at the time, explained the slogan, “The will to no longer be called Donson.”

However, even now, Nexon’s main source of revenue is still probabilistic items. The game industry analyzes that it will be difficult to get out of it completely because probability items are the easiest and fastest way to make money. An industry official said, “Once you taste money (as a probability item), you won’t be able to give it up easily.”

◇ All you have to do is make money?… The game industry has fallen into a swamp of probability-type items

According to the game industry on the 8th, probability-type items account for a significant portion of domestic game companies’ sales. In the case of NCsoft, 89% of sales as of the fourth quarter of last year came from Lineage, Lineage 2, Lineage M, Lineage 2M, Blade & Soul, Aion, and Guild Wars 2.

During the same period, Netmarble’s Seven Knights 2, Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, and Lineage 2 Revolution accounted for 64% of its sales. It is known that about 70% of Nexon’s sales came from Maple Story, Dungeon & Fighter, Mabinogi, and the Kingdom of the Wind.

These games are known to have a monthly fee of less than 5% and the proportion of fixed paid items. The remaining 95% means money earned by selling probability-type items. An industry official said, “I know that the proportion of total sales of probability-type items exceeds 80% even if we conservatively hold it.”

Probability-type items are mainly used in role-playing games (RPGs). It is a tricky use of the psychology of matching oneself with the character in the game. Many users want to make their character more powerful than anyone else, but psychological experts explain this as similar to how expensive cars, watches, bags, etc. act as’show-off consumer goods’ in the real world.

For example, if you spend 10 million won to obtain equipment A, competitors will soon spend 20 million won to acquire equipment B, which is superior to equipment A. As such competition is repeated, a power structure within the game is formed, and users gather around this composition to form a single force.

In the game, wars between factions are often treated as the main content. At this time, if the item (equipment) level is weaker than that of other forces, you will have no choice but to lose the war, and users will again competitively spend money to secure the item (equipment). A circular payment structure is created. In order to make continuous payments in this process, game companies introduced a method called probability. By this probability, users continue to pay until the desired item is available.

The industry explains that this is why most games that always rank at the top of the domestic game sales rankings are RPGs.

◇ Consensus of interests of management and developers… “Profit-leading attention should be improved”

There was enough voice within the industry that the high proportion of sales of probability-type items should be lowered. Lee Jeong-hun, CEO of Nexon, who was suspicious of probability manipulation this time, said at the management meeting in 2018, “I do not always think that we will be able to increase the company’s sales with probability items,” and “We will continue to invest in a new profit structure.”

However, most companies, including Nexon, are still unable to escape the structure, and the industry analyzes that this is because the interests of the management and development team are exactly the same. In front of’high profits’, the philosophy for games is inevitably to be behind the scenes.

Lee Mo (male, 39), a former game developer who requested anonymity, said in a call with Chosun Biz, “Even if developers make items with an appropriate probability considering the rewards and deadlines that appear throughout the game, if profitability is low, the management will be selected. It is difficult,” he said, “a environment in which developers can create good games without paying attention to sales must be prepared.”

“The reason that the internal criticism of the developer cannot come out is because the success of the game is the profit of the developers.” Said.

As an alternative to probabilistic items,’battle pass’ and the like are discussed. The Battle Pass is a system in which rare items or reinforcement items are given without discrimination when users who have paid a certain amount raise the level of their character within a certain period or if they succeed in a given mission. It has the advantage of being able to escape from probability-type items while preserving the profits of game companies.

Jeong-Hyun Wie, President of the Korean Game Association (Professor of Business Administration, Chung-Ang University) said, “The domestic game industry can continue to grow only when new intellectual property rights (IP) are developed and various profit structures are developed.” “We need to create a game and an environment that can be enjoyed.”