Is GMS employees costing Nexon money?
Found this interesting article: https://mmos.com/news/top-free-play-pc-games-revenue-2017-superdataresearch
In 2017, MapleStory (Globally) earned US 279 million. Heck, even $79 million alone would be huge profits.
Probably 70% of that comes from Asia: Japan, Korea, Taiwan where they strong anti-hack shields, professional employees (as we know, Korea and Japan value professionalism).
Many say Maple is dead, you gotta know Maple isn't just GMS.. Maple is still massively popular in Korea.
I think the issue are the staff hired on the NA version, they never communicate with their customers, they have more than enough money to put up a state-of-the-art hackshield that would kill any attempt of hacking, and they could also have at least 2 GMs on roulette online on each server at any given time.
If GMS had the same service as Japan and Korea, and put some more into advertisement, I think Nexon would have earned even more as the West is the largest market on earth in terms of capita per person.
8 Comments • Newest first
@wellness: Yeah I think so, there's just more people spending $2000 on maple in korea.
Yeah, probably, but they could also be stifling the customer service experience to save money.
Also, they seem to have lost hope in major success with Maplestory, evidenced by them not tuning the game to suit western needs.
@beefly: It seems to have attracted a niche group. I don't know how long they will stay. Will you stay with me forever?
@endurance: But I can actually play MapleStory.
Maplestory is as dead as Wonderking and Dragon Gem.
@tampons: usually I don't see many eastern countries except Korea, and like a couple Japanese, the rest are in their own sites in which requires me to read moonrunes.
people who think this game is doing well in china is clueless. just go to various stream sites and you will barely find any maplestory at all.
MapleStory isn't doing so hot in the West unlike KMS/JMS/CMS which are still booming, with load of paying players.
To say "GMS is dead" is somewhat fair if you compare them to the East. Less money brings less professionals, because less experience is cheaper. No idea how much assistance does KMS give to GMS, probably minimal. GMS can only do what they can afford, like voice actors that sound like a part-time fast food employee.
Nexon NA could raise profits, but I highly doubt they can do it with MapleStory, and they have been trying new games to appeal to the West. I have no idea how that's going, but I really don't think Nexon's old weeb games can do much other than keep them afloat as an old cash cow. Things that worked in the East may not succeed in the West.
I mean, look at Dungeon Fighter Online, that game literally DIED in the West, meanwhile it thrives in the East.
Looking at that last statement, as well as the other similar Western server MMOs that are just barely alive like LaTale(?), is it worth to pump money into a game that seems like the public isn't as interested in as they were? Do they even have the money to pump into the game? The answer is no.
Eh even if they made a billion, they still wouldn't be able to stop hackers. Hackers help fuel their money as well. How you ask? Hackers who bot and getting a bunch of CSS or Shield scrolls etc and sell them for 30m~150m. THen comes along a "newbie" who can buy MAPLE POINTS and sell them FOR IN GAME CURRENCY. It is a cycle that helps GMS as well, so they don't care. Plus KMS has a worse hack problem in comparison to GMS.