FIFA 4 Boycott... Nexon Faces Controversy Over Excessive 'In-App Purchase' Inducement

Photo by Online Community Capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] "From today, I will stop spending money on FIFA4 (purchasing game items)"

Users of Nexon's soccer game FIFA Online 4 (FIFA4) are launching a 'no-spending movement.' The no-spending movement means that users will no longer spend money on the game, similar to a boycott. The controversy is growing rapidly as professional gamers Park Junhyo and Shin Boseok, as well as popular YouTubers 'Doochi and Ppukku,' join in.

On the 23rd, various game communities and the FIFA4 official website bulletin board were flooded with user protests. Users expressed collective protest by posting emoticons of a person lying down or uploading relay videos on YouTube saying, "I join the no-spending movement."

The users' dissatisfaction stems from Nexon's excessive inducement of spending. Nexon has drawn criticism for releasing new player packs (game items) about once a month this year.

The signal flare for the boycott was when Nexon released the 'LH Season Player Pack' used to draw soccer players on the 26th of last month. The players obtained from this pack had overwhelmingly better performance compared to previously released players.

For example, a user who invested real money to get Cristiano Ronaldo on the 11th of last month ended up with a better-performing Ronaldo in just two weeks. Since the player pack system randomly draws players, the money a user invests to get Ronaldo can range from a minimum of 50,000 KRW to several million KRW.

A serious drop in the value of existing players also occurred. FIFA4 has an auction system where players can be bought and sold, but with the release of the new LH players, the players that users previously owned became like 'worthless scraps' in stock terms. For example, Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane's market value dropped from 950 million BP to 470 million BP, halving in price.

A FIFA4 user said, "It cannot be said that a profit-seeking company inducing spending is always bad. However, in this case, Nexon rapidly depreciated the value of existing player packs," adding, "To maintain a high rank in the game, users now have to invest an excessive amount of money."

In response, the game industry analyzed that the feared situation has occurred. Professor Wi Jeonghyun of Chung-Ang University, president of the Korea Game Society, said, "The threshold of users who bought items despite complaints has been reached," and added, "In sports games like FIFA4, if money determines victory or defeat, it causes even more anger."

Regarding this, Nexon stated, "We recognize the related issues," and "We are internally discussing various measures to provide feedback on users' opinions." Nexon plans to release a specific statement on the matter within the day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.