Posts Tagged ‘Kartrider’

Nexon brings KartRider and MapleStory to the social and mobile world

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Originator of the free-to-play model, Nexon has recently announced that they’re bringing their most popular titles, KartRider and MapleStory to the mobile and social world, respectively. KartRider Rush is targeted at iOS and Android platforms, while the classic side scrolling MapleStory Adventures will find a new home on Facebook. KartRider will arrive later this month (iOS), while MapleStory Adventures is set for a summer ’11 launch.

True to Nexon’s model, both titles will be free-to-play, and offer microtransactions as enhancements to the games, as well as provide a healthy revenue stream for Nexon. KartRider Rush will soon be a free iP (phone, pad, pod touch) app, with an Android based version arriving later this summer. KartRider Rush is a mobile/handheld version of KartRider; a title that counts a massive 200 million registered players worldwide. KartRider Rush features a multiplayer interface, allowing up to four players to race head to head on unique and challenging courses in both battle and time trial modes. If you’ve no friends to play with, fear not, as KartRider Rush also features a rich and engaging solo experience. Single player mode brings up a range of AI racers to square off against in Item Mode and Speed mode. Taking advantage of Facebook Connect, KartRider Rush fans can display their highscores and compare them against friends’ best lap times, etc. Nexon introduces the microtransactions in KartRider Rush via a variety of additional tracks all available for purchase.

On the Facebook front, Nexon brings the all-time classic, side scrolling, MapleStory (Adventures). Arriving this summer, Nexon has taken the already simple interface of MapleStory, and slimmed it down even further. MapleStory Adventures will provide the same MapleStory experience, only now on Facebook, as players are presented with a number of quests and challenges. Only now, they can ask for Facebook friend help in their trials and tribulations. Similar to the original MapleStory, Nexon will be offering microtransactions of the upgrade and in-game items variety.

“Expanding our global IPs into the social and mobile gaming space is a watershed moment in Nexon’s global expansion efforts,” said Daniel Kim, Nexon America’s CEO. “Not only will this move provide new ways for hundreds of millions of fans worldwide to experience Nexon’s games, it allows Nexon the opportunity to prove the robustness of its business model on new platforms.”

 

Nexon’s Min Kim on tap to deliver Keynote at GDC China

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

One of the best known, and most experienced individuals in the free-to-play video games industry, Nexon’s Min Kim is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference China. The GDC China, presented by Think Services will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center, this October 11th-13th.

min-kimKim’s address, titled “A Fantastic Westward Journey,” is slated to be filled with colorful anecdotes and words of advice to Chinese developers in regards to Nexon’s experiences in bringing popular Korean titles, as well as the free-to-play business model that has long been associated with the genre. Kim will also focus on how microtransactions were born in Asia, and for a long time, were thriving only in this market. Not so much today. He’ll talk about how this successful business model initially received a cold shoulder in the North American and European markets, but has today become a revolutionary catalyst in these markets, citing specific examples from Nexon’s breakthrough hit, the MapleStory franchise. Keep in mind that Nexon’s MapleStory is a very strong candidate in the free-to-play benchmark category, with over 92 million users worldwide, 6 million of which reside in North America.

“Min Kim will be an exceptional and inspirational keynote speaker for China,” said Meggan Scavio, GDC China event director. “Nexon’s success is proof that there is a market beyond Asia for these types of non-hardcore MMOs. Moreover, the game industry has been taken by storm with Nexon’s microtransaction business model. The Chinese audience stands to gain a tremendous account of firsthand knowledge, anecdotes and advice from Kim to take back to their companies and studios.”

And while most of us primarily know Nexon and Kim from the MapleStory franchise, Nexon was hard at work years before MapleStory’s success. The company is responsible for developing the world first internet quiz game, QPlay, and in 2004 they set a world record with 700,000 concurrent users playing Crazy Arcade BnB. In addition to MapleStory, Nexon is also the firm that developed KartRider, a title that approximately 30 percent of all South Koreans have played at one time or another.

Moving forward, Nexon is in the midst of a portal and marketing revamp that will presented under BlockParty.com. This new portal will feature a total of eight titles on US shores by the end of 2010 which will include Dungeon Fighter Online and Dragon Nest.

Assuming that Min will discuss Nexon’s entire timeline, there’s bound to be many a valuable lesson, and hopefully some highlights and reasoning behind the new revamp of Nexon’s portal offerings. Stay tuned, as the GDC China is just around the corner, and if Austin was any indication of the plethora of gaming industry news covered at the GDC conferences, the China conference might just yield a number of free-to-play/microtransactions supported games highlights.

 

ROSE Online goes free to play

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

GravityInteractive’s popular Korean Developed MMO ROSE Online will be switching to a free to play model starting July 29th.

Since 2005 ROSE Online has been available via an $11.99/month subscription fee.  Direct from the ROSE Online news page:

Rose Online has been a part of the Gravity family suite of game titles for several years now. We are going to update ROSE’s subscription model to attract more users than ever before.

On July 29 we will be turning the servers over to Free to Play where all accounts in good standing may log in.

On July 15 we have removed the subscription page from the Website. From July 15 through July 29 new subscriptions creation will be unavailable.

It is advised that all Players who utilize the paypal re-occurring subscription model, login to paypal and cancel the re-occurring payment. We will automatically be canceling all remaining re-occurring payments (to not re-occur), around the 22nd.

Any Remaining Subscription time will be credited 60 Mileage points per day (1800/month) that is left of the current subscription Figured from the beginning of the Tuesday maintenance, 10am PDT July 29, 2008.

If you have friends that want to play ROSE but were concerned with the subscription cost now is a great time to invite them to join you on your adventure!

This will be a bright new beginning for ROSE online, come and join us!
Thank you,
Gravity Interactive, Inc.

Given that ROSE will be issuing in game currency credits for remaining subscription time, they’re clearly moving towards not only a free to play model, but a micro transaction one as well.  If they’re going with a micro transaction based model, who programmed the transaction module, and did the game development suffer?  We’re wondering if GravityInteractive is watching the growing trend, and taking cues from Nexon’s popular MapleStory and Kartrider along with their most recent addition: Combat Arms?  It would be the right time to test the waters of free to play micro transaction based titles, with not only Nexon blazing the path, but industry titans like EA dipping their toes in the micro transaction pool with Battlefield Heroes.


Zemanta Pixie
 

Fatfoogoo goes b2b with bbq flava

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Focusing not only on the needs of the player alone, after careful research and consideration, your favorite foogoos are now opening the doors to partnerships with individual game publishers. No worries, the current state of fatfoogoo isn’t going anywhere, and we’ve still got your back for all things trading. We’ve simply added another dish to the menu.

We took a long hard look at not only the technologies that we’ve developed in house, the experience and knowledge that we’ve gained, but also at what players and publishers across the world are looking for in a gaming experience. Combine that with the current state of the industry and the tremendous interest and revenue streams in the micro transaction field, adding the fatfoogoo partnership program was a no brainer.

In a recent interview fatfoogoo CEO Martin Herdina sites, “The trading and selling of virtual assets is truly the future of online gaming. It is an important alternative business model to the classical subscription fee-based programs that are currently dominating the industry. Fatfoogoo looks to fulfill a demand for this market. Our new Partnership program enables us to provide the best of both worlds: Primary Market trading, i.e. Publisher to Player and Secondary Market Trading, i.e. Player to Player trading. With the incredible growth of both primary and secondary trading markets, most major publishers understand that there is a need for an independently operated, fair and secure marketplace for virtual goods and services.”

And what a demand it is. The secondary trading market for virtual assets alone is currently growing at astonishing rates, going from revenues of approximately $1 billion in 2006 to an expected $7 billion in 2009, according to Nielsen.

This model has already been proven in Asia with Maple Story and Kartrider, both published by Nexon games. Research has shown that 8%-30% of all players purchase items via micro transactions. This in turn results in a higher revenue stream for publishers as opposed to the traditional subscription fee model. According to industry experts, on average, ‘Free to Play’ games generate anywhere between $15-$20/month. In the April edition of Fortune Magazine, senior writer Devin Leonard weighed in on the future of gaming:

(Game Publisher) Nexon pioneered this business – hooking players with a seductive free game while urging them at every turn to purchase extras using prepaid debit cards sold at retail outlets like Target. Nexon collects ad revenue in overseas markets, but in the United States the big money so far is in these microtransactions: $1.6 million a month. John Chi, CEO of Nexon America, says that the Nexon card is the second-best-selling prepaid card at Target – after the iTunes card. (Target will say only that Nexon cards are “doing really well.”)

Our experience in the virtual world micro transaction field is unparalleled. Not only have we created a multilingual platform, currency, taxation, and support system, but also gained real life experience and have weeded out a lot of headaches. As with anything in life, nothing is 100% certain, but here at the foogoo, we’ve already dealt with a whole number of things that could go wrong, have fixed them, and have learned from them. No other system in the world can match our level of multi national experience.

Back at the top-secret underground foogoo labs, our partnership engineers are already hard at work developing solutions for clients. Stay tuned, as we’ll be announcing some of our exciting partnerships soon!