Korean Companies Fined for Abusive Loot Box Practices

The law and the politicians who command it have been circling loot boxes hungrily ever since EA decided to step too far out of line. Studies are being funded, cases are being made, and bills are trying to pass, but studios have still been using loot boxes because there’s been nothing stopping them… yet. But while the west still has a ways to go until the great loot box reckoning, over in Korea, it looks like it’s begun, because we have the very first case of a company being fined - successfully - for their abuse of loot boxes.

Specifically, three studios companies have been fined a total of $950 dollars over shady loot box dealings. Two of those studios, NextFloor and Netmarble, had tiny fees of 4,600 and 55,000, respectively. The majority of that fee was paid by Nexon, best known in the west for publishing MapleStory, Dirty Bomb, and DomiNations, as it was actually getting sued for a Korea-exclusive game, Sudden Attack, which is a sort of generic competitive FPS.

According to reports, it was advertising loot boxes that had two puzzle pieces inside, and collecting all sixteen would lead to in-game bonuses. You could only buy a loot box with real money, for around .85 cents – so already, it’s a terrible example of loot box practices, but it gets even worse: some of the pieces were so rare, they only showed up .5 percent of the time. Apparently, players were able to rack up over $400 trying to get those pieces.

This is a big deal in Korea, as the source suggests it will hurt the sales of in-game items. But as for the west, it’ll likely only be pointed at as an example of what can go wrong, rather than an example of how to deal with it. But still, it’s a perfect illustration of the direction we’re going in. For better or for worse.