The future of the video game business is playing out very differently on two sides of Los Angeles.

In Westwood, nearly 200 people recently lost their jobs when Pandemic Studios, the maker of Saboteur and other gritty video games, shut its doors.

But 12 miles east, at Nexon Corp.'s U.S. division, bustling staffers are upbeat as they prepare to double the size of their workforce. The South Korean publisher best known for its lighthearted game MapleStory saw sales climb 12% in 2009.

The difference? Pandemic makes games on discs that come shrink-wrapped in plastic boxes and sell for $60 at stores such as Best Buy and Target. Sales for that kind of video game fell 11% last year.

Nexon, however, distributes its video games online free of charge and generates revenue by selling virtual items such as weapons and costumes that players use in the game.

Nexon has a catalog of more than 10,000 virtual accessory items for sale that run from $1 for colored contact lenses for characters to a $32.90 sniper rifle. Most players never touch any of it, but the minority who do buy the features are enough to make it a viable business, company executives note.

"We operate by the 80/20 rule," said Min Kim, Nexon America Inc.'s vice president of marketing. "Twenty percent of our audience make up 80% of our revenue."

(Yet they fail when it comes to listening to that 20% of the population)

In 2009, Nexon's total worldwide sales hit 700 billion won, 67% (500 billion won) of which were contributed by the overseas sales. Compared to the year 2008, Nexon's worldwide sales were increased by 450.9 billion won, with a growth of over 30%. In 2010, with such sound growth momentum unchanged, Nexon is very likely to present itself as the first company that reaches annual sales of 1,000 billion won in South Korea's gaming history.

In 2009, Dungeon Fighter Online (a powerful project developed by Nexon's newly-acquired branch Neople), the significant MapleStory, Mabinogi and KartRider etc. all acted as major projects that brought Nexon considerable benefits.

In 2007, Nexon's overseas sales took up more than 50%, while in 2008, 56% and in 2009, 67%. In 2009, Nexon Japan witnessed a growth of 95% in the sales, while Nexon Europe witnessed an amazing growth of 150%. Both of the two branches have become Nexon's two new leading income makers in the overseas market.

With Mabinogi: Heroes as the leading game, Nexon plans to make public its new products including Ever Planet, Dragon Nest and Nexon Star in South Korea in the first half of 2010. Its first browser-based game - 3 Kingdoms (translated) will also debut domestically in the first quarter of 2010. Meanwhile, the above-mentioned major projects' sequels like Mabinogi 2 and MapleStory 2 are under development currently.

According to Nexon, as the sequel to Mabinogi, Mabinogi 2 is being developed smoothly and won't be launched until it enjoys higher quality than Mabinogi. Mabinogi 2 is expected to meet the audience at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year, though details about its release schedule are still not confirmed. MapleStory 2 is undergoing smooth development as well, and is scheduled to debut next year.

And this is why i dont spend NX on maple anymore;



nexon is full of smug bitches who rob kids of their milk money and award them with shitty service. (look at that smug hoe) T___T /rant

anyway, will you move to maplestory 2 next year? i'll move to maplestory 2... although, most of us need to stick together! forsaken 2 pls

This news also makes me wonder about content updates for maplestory. im thinking;

spring: adventurer updates/neo tokyo or kerning sqaure

summer: anniversary/evan/neo tokyo or kerning sqaure (depending on which came in spring)

fall: world tour maps/maybe FINALLY an expansion to masteria (though if maple 2 is coming in 2011, masteria and all its planned expansions seem to be a dead project).

possibly the new theif class. if evan is a bomb like it was in KMS, they'll speed release the theif job just as their doing in kms. as at this point in time, job releases are the base of nexons plan on how to make money from maple going forward.

winter: theif legend or the bowman legend, possibly the black mage pq and beginning of the ending storyline

2011: bowman legend if its not out in the early half of the year. time temple expansions; final boss. the ending storyline to maplestory leading to the release of maplestory 2

no pirate legend; the pirate job was a huge bomb for nexon. not enough interest in the job overall and its not one of the original maple heros, only warrior/mage/theif and bow were. although, if nexon continues with content for maplestory i can see them throwing in a new pirate job/possibly cygnus updates and rehasing world tour maps as they have been doing in kms.

once maplestory 2 launches in korea you'll probably see it launch fairly soon after in other territories as much of the buzz/interest would be in maple 2. why spend a lot of nx in maple when maple 2 is coming?

plus from what we know is coming to cash shop; they plan to majorly whore out maplestory via the cash shop in its final year. (exp chairs/more hammer slots/3x cards/level ignore items/cs items with stats/potions in cs/world tour maps that require tickets for entrance)

source:
http://www.latimes.com/busines....ack=rss
http://news.mmosite.com/content....1.shtml

Read the directions, and directly you'll be directed in the right direction.