Nexon touts numbers, taps Source

Microtransaction-based MMO MapleStory hits 3 million registered users in North America; publisher taps Valve's Source engine for next project.

Attracting users to a massively multiplayer online game is a lot easier when admission is free. Still, logging 3 million registered users to an MMO in less than four months of release is impressive, subscription or not.

Nexon America Inc. today announced that its first release, the fantasy role-playing game MapleStory, has amassed 3 million registered users since its release in the region in late November 2006. To date, MapleStory has almost 60 million users across the globe, claims Nexon.

MapleStory works on the microtransaction-based business model of MMO games, which sees players paying for in-game items and upgrades rather than pay for the game and fork over a monthly subscription fee.

While MapleStory is a simple 2D game with cartoonish graphics, Nexon's next project will apparently be a bit more technologically advanced. The company has announced that is will be using Valve's Source engine, which powers first-person games like Half-Life 2 and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, for an upcoming PC third-person fantasy title.

Seoul, Korea-based Nexon has produced several hits in the Asian MMO market, including the popular Kart Rider. The next release set for North America is the MMO dance game Audition, which will be served up in April.

30 Comments

  • rikhan_z

    Posted Oct 7, 2007 4:04 am PT

    this game can really eat your life away if your not careful.

  • rockerode

    Posted Aug 28, 2007 7:22 pm PT

    1: maplestory has been out for about 2 years since there was a 2-year event for the american one and 2: if u dont like the game then dont post crap on this. this place should really be for the ppl who like the game!

  • dupe576

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 8:38 pm PT

    man.. this game look slike crap.. just sounds like a giant south korean style rip off

  • emerald101

    Posted Apr 13, 2007 4:19 pm PT

    Great mmorpg. for the first year after that u might aswell go on ur sega drive. oh yeh i forgot the game is completely full of hackers. Lika master coon said they are extremely lazy.

  • mastercoon

    Posted Apr 6, 2007 6:55 pm PT

    The community may be bad in the game, but you may meet some people online that you actually get along with. the game can be fun when you team up with a group of friends, but there is definetly a hacker problem. The Gm's are as lazy as the cops in Compton... oh yeah I went there

  • TakShack

    Posted Mar 31, 2007 12:11 pm PT

    I must insist that anyone tempted to play, do not. The game has literally crumbled due to a mixture of cheaters/hackers, poor moderator/admin support and the rift between new players and the many elitists who just make the game depressing to play.

  • ferid84

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 6:27 am PT

    maple story made me quit all games, and now i want to quit but i really can't, am so addicted to it XD

  • wh1te_m4trix

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 12:02 pm PT

    I used to play it but I quit like 2-3 months ago because of the bad community. The game was full of people that don't respect you, type obscene messages that everyone can see and most of them are show offs that think being lvl 70 its gonna make them the last coca cola in the world. But im glad I quit, but im still looking to see what comes out of this next game.

  • Inguan

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 6:13 pm PT

    whao that is al people for some 2D game

  • zsc4

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 10:17 am PT

    To be honest I have played Maple Story, I played it roughly for around 6-7 months it was really a decent game. But there were mainly downsides for example the community was full of immature people who didn't know that meaning of respect, they would KS low levels and think they are the best . But then I quit due to the fact I realized it was just too repetitive and didn't require any skill to play, if you wanted to get to a high level it not about skills its just about how much time you spend on the game. So now that it nearly been 6 months since I quit, I'm glad At the end of the day everyone has their own opinions, and the stats may show a lot of people are playing this game, but it just tells you the amount of people registered...how about the amount of inactive accounts due to the people quitting

  • Antoshi

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 9:53 am PT

    Someone on the GameSpot team needs to do at least a little research about MapleStory before they go about making a report about it. From this article, the average reader would assume that Nexon amassed 3 million players in 4 months. Either GameSpot intentionally left out Wizet's owning of the game to make Nexon look better or they didn't know about it. And if it's the latter, well someone on the GameSpot team needs to do at least a little research about MapleStory.

    Interesting story on Nexon's next move though.

  • scottwilkins

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 6:05 am PT

    The story hints that Nexon is new. They aren't. Nexon has been around for many many years making very low budget, but high fun MMO games. All so far have been very 2D oriented and simple in play and structure, but still very fun and imaginative. Now that they are going to use the Source engine, I can't wait to see what's in store. Source is an awesome 3D engine and I was waiting to see if any developers were going to use it for RPG or MMO style games. I'm glad to see a good developer like Nexon grab it for future projects.

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 5:24 am PT

    Now I know why MapleStory was on the Top 10 Wanted FAQs list on gamefaqs.com.

  • Ariolander

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 1:28 am PT

    Wow a source based MMO from this Korean company? I am not so much interested in Maplestory as this upcoming one 'cause I would like to see how they get this to work and what kind of funding scheme they come up with.

  • JustQuest

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 1:20 am PT

    3 mil thats really a massive achievement , I wonder how they got their fanbase, I've heard of maple story before but I really didnt think that it was that huge.

  • Unstoppable_1

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 11:38 pm PT

    Holy crap. 3 million for this lil rpg. Nuff said.

  • gatsbythepig

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 6:40 pm PT

    good reporting, thanks

  • SecretWasianMan

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 5:35 pm PT

    I agree with Dante200X, you have no idea what you're talking about wytefang. Maple story is a decent MMO, with some refreshing mechanics that separate it from the normal "click-and-let-the-fighting-happen" gameplay in other MMOs. You should appreciate games for what they are after playing them, not just the screenshots

    At any rate, I do look forward to their next Source-based project. Hopefully, that will be free as well

  • Dante200X

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 5:22 pm PT

    wytefang bring up an interesting point: he's dumb and has no idea what he's talking about.

  • runstalker

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:31 pm PT

    Seriously. Conan O'Brien's staff made a gag site for a Horny Manatee and it got millions of hits. It's not difficult to accumulate 'registered users' that either a) register and never follow up or b) register, play once, and never play again. Besides, this press release should read "Maple Story Global", 'cause that's the version they launched in November '06. And they grabbed like 2 million users from a pool amassed for 16 months prior with Maple Story's previous western service. Fuzzy math?

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:25 pm PT

    Wanna bet a lot of those accounts belongs to a single person and a lot of them abandoned?

    No one is stupid enough, to stay to play this game.

  • runstalker

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:23 pm PT

    Let me remind you that the Source engine is just an engine, at the whim of the developer to make it work. Allow me to provide proof of graphical travesties created using the Source engine: see Kuma War and Dino Hunters. To Valve's credit, it's a really nice engine in the hands of skilled developers. However it's inexpensive to license and very easy to use, so people can produce garbage from it as well. Nexon's track record in 3D does not demonstrate that they can milk the engine, but who knows.

  • sciss0rz

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:11 pm PT

    I wonder if this is going to be like War Rock, have good a good engine when they start and by the time it gets to retail the engine is dated beyond belief.

  • lancerex6

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:08 pm PT

    BS! Maplestory came out in July 2005 published by Wizet...the members stayed when the publisher changed to Nexon America...Sigh...

  • EMAN2g

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:08 pm PT

    ....lol Kart Rider? never heard of it....>_>

  • Re_ensurer

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 2:08 pm PT

    Interesting. Using the source engine.

  • wytefang

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 1:55 pm PT

    Stories like this remind me of 2 things: 1. Man are my fellow gamers crappy at determining quality, and 2. MMOs pretty much suck big-time - they're nothing more than glorified 3D chat rooms for scrubs with crappy PCs who are too cheap to upgrade them so they can play real games. Not some level-grinding crap with dancing emotes and spawn-camping gold-farmers. Bring on some real games, not this tripe, please and thanks. Nuff said.

  • doolies

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 1:54 pm PT

    Fantastic news.

    Will be interesting to see what they can do with the Source Engine for a MMO type.

  • The_NES_Master

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 1:51 pm PT

    Um, November 2006 is when Nexon merged with Wizet or something like that (not sure on this), not when MapleStory was released. MapleStory has been released in the US for quite some time now.

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