The South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has fined game publisher Krafton 2.5 million won (approximately $1,800) for misrepresenting loot box probabilities in PUBG: Battlegrounds. The fine is part of a broader regulatory push following amendments to South Korea’s Game Industry Act, which now requires developers to clearly disclose the odds of obtaining in-game items tied to random chance.
The KFTC’s ruling focuses on two specific violations during Krafton’s promotional events. Between March and June 2023, Krafton launched a collaboration with K-pop group NewJeans and advertised that players would be guaranteed to receive a specific cosmetic item on their fifth attempt. In reality, the actual success probability on the fifth try was only 9 percent. In another case, the company displayed drop rates between 0.1414% and 0.7576% for certain item crafting systems, but the actual chance of success was zero.
Mobile game publisher Com2uS received the same penalty for its game Starseed: Asnia Trigger. Between March and May 2023, the company sold bundles claiming that three items each had a 24 percent chance to enhance character stats. However, only one item had any actual effect, while the other two were functionally useless.
In addition to the fines, both companies must submit preventive action plans to the KFTC within 30 days. Krafton has refunded over 1.1 billion won (around $870,000) to more than 380,000 affected players and issued about 9.8 billion won in in-game currency as compensation. Com2uS granted 200,000 won worth of in-game currency to each of its 1.55 million users, regardless of whether they made related purchases.
The KFTC stated that it will continue to monitor game publishers closely and enforce stricter oversight of misleading loot box practices. It added that additional penalties will follow if companies fail to comply with disclosure rules. Investigations into other major developers, including Webzen and NCSoft, are ongoing.
In related news, Ayaneo recently launched the Pocket S2 and Pocket S2 Pro gaming handhelds, featuring a detachable D-pad and a 10,000mAh battery.
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