Austin GDC:

In his keynote at the Austin Game Developers Conference, Nexon director of game operations Minho Kim detailed his companyâs experience bringing MapleStory to the North American market.

Nexon was a pioneer in the "item" or microtransaction business model, where users access the full game for free and can later opt to pay for game enhancements. MapleStory is one of the most profitable online games globally, earning over USD 16 million per month.

Nexonâs 2005 revenues exceeded 230 million—85 per cent of which came from item sales, with the remainder coming from advertising.

Although popular in South Korea, the company was initially concerned with MapleStory's viability in the US. For starters, the graphics were not cutting edge, and the US was perceived as more of a console market than a PC market. Microtransactions were also thought to be an âAsian thingâ that US consumers would not buy into.

âAll of these assumptions are incorrectâ¦players are looking for great games and great social experiences,â Kim said.

Fortunately, the company was able to ride the wave of a new online social generation that became enthralled with MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, AIM, and MSN among others.

Ringtones and digital music downloads conditioned users to purchasing items online. â[Apple] did a lot of work for us. They educated the consumer about buying music through pre-paid cards,â Kim said. In fact, the Nexon Game Card is currently the number two content card in the US, just behind iTunes.

With MapleStoryâs success came the usual challenges: namely fraud. Kim said that dealing with fraud is a cat and mouse game that you cannot win. âYou donât have enough people to gout and find these guys. You have to build it into your system.â

The company took steps such as removing the lucrative gifting function, setting spending limits, educating its user base, working with vendors, and creating internal systems to deal with fraud. Combating hacks and abuse required trust and cooperation between Nexonâs service teams and development teams.

The company plans to launch KartRider, a racing MMO game that has been hugely successful in Korea, in the US before the end of the year.

For the future, Nexon plans to continue expanding content, even as it pursues greater advertising, product placement, and licensing deals. Although the company notes the importance of localizing its games to each market, it hopes that establishing a North American office will allow it to create something new.

âThe next great games of this genre for the western market should be made in the western market,â Kim said.