Nexon CEO: F2P Should Be About Heart, Not Money
There's an interesting interview with Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney, who says free-to-play developers in the West are "early in the learning curve" and that they should "focus on heart first and money second." In his words, doing otherwise is a "disservice to the industry."
Mahoney speaks out against overmonetization -- something he admits that his company has done in the past, before "adjusting" their games -- but that it's not (usually) about nasty, evil, money-grubbing game developers. Rather, Western developers are just behind the curve and it'll take "years" to figure out how to do things right.
"So the companies that we've been partnering with want to accelerate their learning on that and learn how to do live game operations and how to build a live game operations team who knows how to do that and get that learning from us and hopefully we're able to be helpful to them in doing that."
Mahoney also expresses the "why isn't this obvious?" sentiments that game development needs to continue after launch and that lots of game developers think they're geniuses for developing the next WoW or LoL clone (they're not). If you're a Nexon fan, you have to like what you're hearing. He also reveals that about 10-11% of players of Nexon games pay to play, usually an average of $20 to $30.
Still, as Mahoney admits, it's something his company doesn't always get right. You don't usually hear about Nexon as one of the worst offenders when it comes to F2P monetization, but the company still has its detractors. Maybe this gives some hope to people looking forward to MapleStory 2 or those long-ago-mentioned Ghost in the Shell games.
What do you think of Mahoney's comments? Are they in line with what you've encountered playing Nexon's games?
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About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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Well they did give away something valuable for free; one hell of a laugh. I haven't held my sides like that in a long, long time. This CEO guy should do stand up.
*points at gachapon*
need more pointing?
Atlantica, Maplestory, Mabinogi, Vindictus, Dragon Nest are really fatty games who have tons of content in them you can fully enjoy playing them. even if they are a bit p2w but you could totally enjoy it whitout pay. but some players crave to be the best player in every game they play (despite they don't deserve that status) and they made the p2w a problem much more bigger than is actually is.
nexon games are ok, thet they services is not always good
but the true problem is the community around nexon games, is really formed by young teenagers entitled, spoiled and always angry, criticizing everything. is really hard to understand where the good and the bad decisions of a company are if people always underline the negative side
I hope they continue to turn this corner and become a noteworthy F2P company, not one that makes people puke.
Best joke of 2014. Nexon is all about money and nothing else. Their games are a pay to win joke, filled with cheaters and terrible customer support.
I personally cant stands mobas and i do not like those other games but Dota, TF2, Lol, Warframe, Path of Exile CEO are the ones that can talk about this without people vomiting because of their hipocricy like they do when they see that NExon CEO is talking like this.
@Fromhell, they litteraly turned Vindictus from one of my fav games into a p2win trash game
When in reality, Nexon is pretty good about the model and has always been. Nexon needs the charges and systems they have in place because the allure of their game is inherently different. The basic bitch commends need to stop happening, and some education needs to be given.