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General: Nexon's IPO Signals Growth
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In The Free Zone today, we take a look at the recent stock offering by Asian MMO powerhouse, Nexon. Leave us your thoughts in the comments when finished reading.
When companies go public, they are required to release information that usually wasn't available before, at least not easily. Sometimes, they put out even more. Accordingly, I've had an eye on Nexon during the run-up to its IPO last week. It was reportedly the largest this year on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, raising a very tidy sum, $1.17 billion. This apparently represents a total market value in the range between $7.7 and $9 billion.
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Nexon's IPO Signals Growth.
Comments
I knew F2P were doing alot of money but not that much!! 0_o
Could it be that a part of their success is with the selling of karma koin cards? Not everyone wants to use a CC on the internet.
Same could be said with P2P games i guess. Like WOW, they have time cards. That way you can get a wider audience to play your games.
incoming more "F2P" titles hehehe
Great titles, regular updates and purchasable content that is tailored specficially to the interests and playstyles of each game. Nexon really has a great stable of games and great extras for each game's avid fans.
Pure. Win.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Nexon has great games but they are a horrible company. Their customer service is TERRIBLE in NA. I've had 1 ticket that stil has not been answered in over a year and other one that hasn't been answered since the summer. Their updates of some of their games are horrid too and can take days. Some of their games are horridly bugged and server crashes are common. They actually had to have a weeks' worth of rollbacks for Mabinogi because so many hackers were duping gold like crazy. I just find it amazing that such a company that makes so much money has such horrid secuirty for their games and that they somehow can't afford to employ more people to answer tickets...
Smile
The Nexon IPO immediate slipped and faltered. If anything I'd say this shows that investors do not have a ton of confidence in the company. If they don't drop a big bomb AAA title that can actually compete, I don't think you will see them getting continued support.
In other words, they have one shot and that shot needs to be the next big title.
Their next huge tittle is going to be Mabinogi II, which is a sequel to Mabinogi (Vindictus is also the prequel to Mabinogi).
Smile
Although I agree that they should hire more employees for their Customer Support service, I have to disagree with the rest.
Concerning the rollbacks in Mabinogi, they don't have much choice but to, and any company will, if needed, rollback their servers to reduce the damage. Duping is rarely done through hacking however, but often normal players who came across an exploit, decided that today was their birthday and they could do whatever they wanted and "shared the wealth" to unknowing players. It would be completly ridiculous to punish (bans) innocent players for having gold that was duped, and removing something that was already spent is more complicated. A rollbacks + refunds of some sorts (extended cash shop items duration, additional bonuses as apologies) is pretty much the only thing a company can do at this point. And of course they will ban the players caught exploiting.
As far as taking days to fix an issue, anyone that has delved into programming will understand why. Having to run through tens of thousands of lines of code to figure out what in hell might cause a bug, often to fix it and discover a new one, is an extremely long and tedious process of testing, fixing and testing in a loop until they can conclude that it has been fixed.
Just as a side note here, I'm not trying to strictly defend Nexon, but game companies and programmers alike. I've experienced my fair share of programming/bug hunting frustration so I tend to give more ropes to developers to fix their games. Unless...they simply don't bother to fix something (I'm looking at you StarVault and Aventurine!). With that being said, I'm way off topic.
-----
Concerning Nexon's growth, I'm actually not surprised at all. The staffs at Nexon have been doing a really great job at picking the right games to bring to NA, and especially over the last 2 years have learned quite a bit more about the NA market and succesfully adapted to it. By this I'm referring for example to the whole debacle with VIndictus when it first launched, and the major outrage from the players who felt extremely restricted by the Token System (which was only refilled twice per week). Now none of their games have any sort of direct "cap" on how long you can play and run dungeons, and they've continued to learn and adapt to the NA market, which I think is one of the main reason that can explain this growth. Of course I'm speaking strictly of Nexon NA as I'm not very familiar with how Nexon works in Asia.
i have only dabbled in two nexon published games but i really enjoyed both atlantica and dragon nest and i could see mytself loggin into them more in the future.
I tried mabinogi but i don't think i got it. funy because i love sandbox games normally.
i haven't had any real problems with their customer service or wit their item malls, though i think atlantica's item mall should have more "assured" items and less gambling on boxes.
if nexon continues to succeed that's great; i'd rather see a game company succeed, and possibly give me my next love of a game, than fail.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Like most f2p companies they have little or no support mechanisms. Have a problem with their games, good luck.
None of their games are better than the rest of the pack, I would think investing in this company is a very bad idea.
You obviously don't know what's going on in Mabinogi... People are still duping and the people that got banned were only banned for one day so some of them came back and started duping again. Nexon hans't solved that problem or the problem that the client has an outdated Hackshield that doesn't protect the game at all from hackers. It's basically destroyed the economy in the servers. Also some players have been locked out of their characters since the G15 update came out which was October 29th, and it's now December... The people who run Nexon NA are extremely incompetent and easily mess up things when patching games and also they always seem to fail at translating items once they first come out.
Smile
It's nice to see some numbers put to these F2P games, even if they're buried in reports that are hundreds of pages long.
But it's also depressing to see these kind of numbers coming from a company that manages its games and infrastructure like Nexon does.
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs:
That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
Thats how much they get and they still greedy and sucks. Nexon is a very bad company, their customer support is horrible. I have a ticket waiting for more than 4 months. Their in game items are very expensive and very necessary for normal gameplay.
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As a avid gamer I'm happy to see these numbers being generated by the f2p industry, but Nexon is the wrong place for it to go. I can't see this company going anywhere in NA with it's horrible security and it's complete dis-regard for customer service.
All that money and Vindictus still doesn't have dedicated servers.
Yeah im shorting this IPO. Neither the Fundamentals or the Technicals are there to support the purchase of this equity.
Nexon's first AAA title is going to be Mabinogi 2 which will feature Vindictus style Action on a larger persistant world.
Dupers, hackers, 0 customer service. I wonder how much of that money is put back into the game as opposed to shipped to Korea. I know that legal team that chases down all the private servers probably costs a lot but other than that who knows what gets spent. If anything this should get players more upset seeing the actual numbers and knowing that almost none of that will come back to them in the form of help. The one positive I can say is Nexon is pretty active with pushing out content but again that is kind of like putting curtains and nice dressings around a broken window.
It just shows Nexon is very good at seperating teens and young adults from their money and has been for years. You will probably love their games until you have a major problem and then have fun waiting 3+ months for any kind of answer.
I think you are right, many people are careful with putting their cards on the net now and some people don't even own cards.
Prepaid cards also make nice gifts, more than one kid have gotten a Wow timecard at Xmas.
Payment on the internet is just so badly handled that you need some time of cards like this to sell as much as possible. I have friends who refuse playing MMOs without timecards since they are scared to get ripped off and I myself quit EQ2 for good after the hacking scandal.
Massive gold seller spam, I mean more than in any game, and nothing done about it. No customer support, had a ticket for the longest time still waiting for a reply. Their games have you pay for one of the most frustrating aspect, re-specs, and many things already mentionned.
They're one of the reason serious gamers totally loathe F2P tittles. I seriously hope they dont become the model for good games going F2P.
Sadly I remember years ago talking to an employee from Nexon and they were trumpting how they would host conferences where execultives of major comapnies would come and see how to implement the F2P system in their games. This was about 2007-2008 range so it could have been a precursor to what we have now. Wish during one of those conferences someone from one of the companies could have told Nexon about proper customer service and integrity of the game.
I'm actually really surprised at people who've had issues with the Customer Support. I've sent about 10 Tickets so far, and they were all answered within a week or so, except for one. But that one was after a major bugged happened in Dungeon Fighter Online where hundreds (or thousands) of players lost gold in the Auction House and the Customer Support were investigating each and every account that sent a ticket to refund the players (if proven to be true). But otherwise, I've never had a single issue with their Support.
A shame we had such different experience I suppose.
R34D TH1S C4R3FULLY :
Nexon is a bad company and they don't care about their players!
-False. If Nexon didn't care, they wouldn't even HAVE a "support" option on their website. They wouldn't help people with their tickets and give them Maple Points as compensation for (here we go) having over A MILLION PLAYERS TO TEND TO. Yeah, Nexon DOES answer people, and they do all they can to help their players have a enjoyable time playing their FREE game. It may take a LONG TIME for them to get around to your ticket, but that's because you are NOT the only one who needs their help.
Nexon didn't give me my hacked items back!
-That is because it is extremely easy for anyone to stage a hacking and abuse that system to obtain free items. They can't produce new items because if they re-issued the lost items to EVERYONE who had been hacked, then there'd be TONS of duplicated items spreading all over the market.
It's Nexon's fault we got hacked! Their security is horrible!
-While it IS their fault that they had a security leak, their security system overall is not horrible in the slightest.
Nexon could just invest money in making their system UN-HACKABLE if they weren't so greedy!
-False. No system is un-hackable. If there WAS such a thing, EVERYONE would use it and hackers would NEVER have to be dealt with. For every "un-hackable" system that is introduced, there are 100 people who can hack it. It's just how it always will be. No system can be 100% safe.
Nexon only cares about money and not their game!
-Oh, they only care about money? No updates or events, ever? You mean these Legends updates with 2x event weekends and about 20 trophies to collect during their Christmas event doesn't count? So adding three new jobs entirely, link skills, new maps, and class reorganizations aren't considered "new content"? I see. Of course, makes sense. Yes, they have a cash shop. But how else are they supposed to pay for the insane bandwidth they need to provide for their daily increasing traffic on their website. Not to mention having to upgrade their servers because of the influx of players. Ever ran an independent server? Yeah, that is NOT cheap. Also, Nexon even gave you PLENTY of offers to get NX for FREE. So you don't even have to buy it with real money, just do some simple quizzes. It's not difficult. I know you people don't like to work for your rewards, but at least have some respect.
Nexon doesn't even do anything about their hackers! omfg!
-False: Nexon has a Ban-List every week with about 1,000 players on it every week. Yes, they can always just re-make the character, but they'll get banned again eventually. Nexon doesn't IP ban because that would prevent any players on that connection from playing Maplestory, which would be unfair to some local household residents or guests to the house.
Nexon PUBLISHES content that korea gives them. Meaning they rely entirely on Korea for any changes. Korea manages the game based on the way it is played in Korea, which is an entirely different game environment. They are not used to dealing with the hackers like we have in GMS, and therefore do not handle them appropriately, NOR in a timely matter.
Lets be honest with ourselves, alot of people who play the game could run it a lot better than the people who currently do. They aren't even aware of half the problems, nor do they take EASY STEPS available to decrease some of the problems.
-Nexon is the publisher and developer for Maplestory. Nexon is first dedicated to creating the Korean content of the game for KMS, and then translating and distributing it to GMS. Hackers are dealt with in KMS faster than GMS only because KMS is their main focus, as they are a south Korean company. And I am being completely honest and say this to my 100% belief: The people of Maplestory would kill themselves trying to run a game like this.
They take forever to fix glitches
-Of course glitches take time to adjust and fix accordingly, but any game-breaking glitch is usually (90% of the time) taken care of with a (within the week, or even day) server check. Smaller things that only affect a group of people are taken care of with time, as they don't affect the game as a whole.
When hackers roam the combat arms world, people cry about Nexon's poor security. When Nexon patches the hack, people cry about something else.
R34D TH1S C4R3FULLY :
Nexon is a bad company and they don't care about their players!
-False. If Nexon didn't care, they wouldn't even HAVE a "support" option on their website. They wouldn't help people
with their tickets and give them Maple Points as compensation for (here we go) having over A MILLION PLAYERS TO
TEND TO. Yeah, Nexon DOES answer people, and they do all they can to help their players have a enjoyable time
playing their FREE game. It may take a LONG TIME for them to get around to your ticket, but that's because you are NOT
the only one who needs their help.
Nexon didn't give me my hacked items back!
-That is because it is extremely easy for anyone to stage a hacking and abuse that system to obtain free items. They
can't produce new items because if they re-issued the lost items to EVERYONE who had been hacked, then there'd be
TONS of duplicated items spreading all over the market.
It's Nexon's fault we got hacked! Their security is horrible!
-While it IS their fault that they had a security leak, their security system overall is not horrible in the slightest.
Nexon could just invest money in making their system UN-HACKABLE if they weren't so greedy!
-False. No system is un-hackable. If there WAS such a thing, EVERYONE would use it and hackers would NEVER have
to be dealt with. For every "un-hackable" system that is introduced, there are 100 people who can hack it. It's just how it
always will be. No system can be 100% safe.
Nexon only cares about money and not their game!
-Oh, they only care about money? No updates or events, ever? You mean these Legends updates with 2x event
weekends and about 20 trophies to collect during their Christmas event doesn't count? So adding three new jobs
entirely, link skills, new maps, and class reorganizations aren't considered "new content"? I see. Of course, makes
sense. Yes, they have a cash shop. But how else are they supposed to pay for the insane bandwidth they need to
provide for their daily increasing traffic on their website. Not to mention having to upgrade their servers because of the
influx of players. Ever ran an independent server? Yeah, that is NOT cheap. Also, Nexon even gave you PLENTY of
offers to get NX for FREE. So you don't even have to buy it with real money, just do some simple quizzes. It's not
difficult. I know you people don't like to work for your rewards, but at least have some respect.
Nexon doesn't even do anything about their hackers! omfg!
-False: Nexon has a Ban-List every week with about 1,000 players on it every week. Yes, they can always just re-make
the character, but they'll get banned again eventually. Nexon doesn't IP ban because that would prevent any players on
that connection from playing Maplestory, which would be unfair to some local household residents or guests to the
house.
Nexon PUBLISHES content that korea gives them. Meaning they rely entirely on Korea for any changes. Korea manages
the game based on the way it is played in Korea, which is an entirely different game environment. They are not used to
dealing with the hackers like we have in GMS, and therefore do not handle them appropriately, NOR in a timely matter.
Lets be honest with ourselves, alot of people who play the game could run it a lot better than the people who currently
do. They aren't even aware of half the problems, nor do they take EASY STEPS available to decrease some of the
problems.
-Nexon is the publisher and developer for Maplestory. Nexon is first dedicated to creating the Korean content of the
game for KMS, and then translating and distributing it to GMS. Hackers are dealt with in KMS faster than GMS only
because KMS is their main focus, as they are a south Korean company. And I am being completely honest and say this
to my 100% belief: The people of Maplestory would kill themselves trying to run a game like this.
They take forever to fix glitches
-Of course glitches take time to adjust and fix accordingly, but any game-breaking glitch is usually (90% of the time)
taken care of with a (within the week, or even day) server check. Smaller things that only affect a group of people are
taken care of with time, as they don't affect the game as a whole.
When hackers roam the combat arms world, people cry about Nexon's poor security. When Nexon patches the hack,
people cry about something else.
R34D TH1S C4R3FULLY :
Nexon is a bad company and they don't care about their players!
-False. If Nexon didn't care, they wouldn't even HAVE a "support" option on their website. They wouldn't help people
with their tickets and give them Maple Points as compensation for (here we go) having over A MILLION PLAYERS TO
TEND TO. Yeah, Nexon DOES answer people, and they do all they can to help their players have a enjoyable time
playing their FREE game. It may take a LONG TIME for them to get around to your ticket, but that's because you are NOT
the only one who needs their help.
Nexon didn't give me my hacked items back!
-That is because it is extremely easy for anyone to stage a hacking and abuse that system to obtain free items. They
can't produce new items because if they re-issued the lost items to EVERYONE who had been hacked, then there'd be
TONS of duplicated items spreading all over the market.
It's Nexon's fault we got hacked! Their security is horrible!
-While it IS their fault that they had a security leak, their security system overall is not horrible in the slightest.
Nexon could just invest money in making their system UN-HACKABLE if they weren't so greedy!
-False. No system is un-hackable. If there WAS such a thing, EVERYONE would use it and hackers would NEVER have
to be dealt with. For every "un-hackable" system that is introduced, there are 100 people who can hack it. It's just how it
always will be. No system can be 100% safe.
Nexon only cares about money and not their game!
-Oh, they only care about money? No updates or events, ever? You mean these Legends updates with 2x event
weekends and about 20 trophies to collect during their Christmas event doesn't count? So adding three new jobs
entirely, link skills, new maps, and class reorganizations aren't considered "new content"? I see. Of course, makes
sense. Yes, they have a cash shop. But how else are they supposed to pay for the insane bandwidth they need to
provide for their daily increasing traffic on their website. Not to mention having to upgrade their servers because of the
influx of players. Ever ran an independent server? Yeah, that is NOT cheap. Also, Nexon even gave you PLENTY of
offers to get NX for FREE. So you don't even have to buy it with real money, just do some simple quizzes. It's not
difficult. I know you people don't like to work for your rewards, but at least have some respect.
Nexon doesn't even do anything about their hackers! omfg!
-False: Nexon has a Ban-List every week with about 1,000 players on it every week. Yes, they can always just re-make
the character, but they'll get banned again eventually. Nexon doesn't IP ban because that would prevent any players on
that connection from playing Maplestory, which would be unfair to some local household residents or guests to the
house.
Nexon PUBLISHES content that korea gives them. Meaning they rely entirely on Korea for any changes. Korea manages
the game based on the way it is played in Korea, which is an entirely different game environment. They are not used to
dealing with the hackers like we have in GMS, and therefore do not handle them appropriately, NOR in a timely matter.
Lets be honest with ourselves, alot of people who play the game could run it a lot better than the people who currently
do. They aren't even aware of half the problems, nor do they take EASY STEPS available to decrease some of the
problems.
-Nexon is the publisher and developer for Maplestory. Nexon is first dedicated to creating the Korean content of the
game for KMS, and then translating and distributing it to GMS. Hackers are dealt with in KMS faster than GMS only
because KMS is their main focus, as they are a south Korean company. And I am being completely honest and say this
to my 100% belief: The people of Maplestory would kill themselves trying to run a game like this.
They take forever to fix glitches
-Of course glitches take time to adjust and fix accordingly, but any game-breaking glitch is usually (90% of the time)
taken care of with a (within the week, or even day) server check. Smaller things that only affect a group of people are
taken care of with time, as they don't affect the game as a whole.
When hackers roam the combat arms world, people cry about Nexon's poor security. When Nexon patches the hack,
people cry about something else.