"Webzen Lured Users with False 'No Service Termination' Claim... Fair Trade Commission Cracks Down on 'Exit Scam' Operations"

After Internally Confirming Shutdown,
Webzen Claimed "No Such Matters Under Review"

Paid Transactions Driven by Deception

Webzen is set to face government sanctions after it continued to sell new in-game items to users while hiding the fact that it had already decided to terminate its game service.

I want to become a master of darkness in the game! Image. Webzen.

On March 5, the Korea Fair Trade Commission announced that it would issue a corrective order and impose an administrative fine of 5 million won on Webzen for deceiving and luring users.

According to the Fair Trade Commission’s investigation, Webzen began specifically considering the termination of its mobile game 'Becoming a Master of Darkness!' on July 11, 2024, due to declining sales. The company internally made the final decision to end the service on July 30 of the same year.

The problem was what happened next. Starting at the end of July, users who heard rumors about the service shutting down demanded a statement from Webzen, asking, "Are there any plans to shut down the server?" However, Webzen falsely responded, "There are no such matters under review." This was a classic deceptive tactic intended to reassure users and encourage them to spend money.

Having bought time with these false answers, Webzen launched a major sale from August 1 to August 22, releasing 16 new character types. Users believed the service would continue and spent money on probability-based items (random draws) and more, but it was only on August 22—at the end of the character sales—that Webzen abruptly announced the termination of the service. The game was officially discontinued in October 2024.

As a result, users ended up purchasing 'limited-life characters' that would not even be usable for a full month. The game is a collection RPG based on Japanese animation intellectual property (IP), and there is criticism that Webzen exploited the fact that character collection is the main monetization element.

The Fair Trade Commission determined that Webzen’s actions constituted a violation of the E-Commerce Act by luring consumers with false information. The Commission emphasized, "We plan to continuously monitor and take strict action against game companies that provide false information regarding service termination."

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