maple-story posts

While the economy is still on shaky ground, the folks at Nexon America are apparently raking in the money from their many free-to-play online games. Last month the company announced that revenues from their games had increased 35 percent compared to the same time period a year ago. Now Gamasutra reports that Nexon America has told them their August revenue numbers were up 32 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

Unfortunately, Nexon America has chosen not to give specific numbers for those revenue increases nor give out any profit numbers, although Gamasutra notes that Nexon's US sales were recorded as $30 million back in 2007. Nexon America supports a number of Asian-based online games such as MapleStory, Combat Arms, and Mabinogi in the US.

The fantasy MMO MapleStory has 6 million registered users in the US and in July Nexon said they had 70,000 concurrent users play the game at one time. The online FPS Combat Arms has 3 million registered US users and Nexon said they have seen "double digit growth" for the game over the past several months. They have also seen revenues go up for their other fantasy MMO Mabinogi. They are close to officially launching their next game in the US, the online fighting title Dungeon Fighter Online.

For our next first anniversary contest, Big Download has teamed up with Nexon America to offer up 10 free codes that are each worth $25 for use in their many online PC game titles. You can use the money to purchase Nexon Cash. That can be used to buy extra in-game items and services for their games such as their popular first person shooter Combat Arms and their fantasy MMOs MapleStory (which celebrated its own fourth anniversary this month) and Mabinogi. Nexon is also preparing to launch their next major game, the online 2D fighting title Dungeon Fighter Online. That title should launch later this year.

How do you win? As with most of our giveaway contests it's pretty simple:
* To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
* The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on May 19.
* You may enter only once.
* 10 winners will be selected in a random drawing.
* Each winner will be sent a code that can be used to purchase Nexon Cash that is used for in-game items and services for Nexon's games (valued at $25 each).
* Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest.
Our huge thanks to Nexon America for the donation of the prizes. Stay tuned as we have even more giveaway contests planned in the next week.

From Nexon, the holder of MMOs Maple Story and Mabinogi, comes something decidedly different -- a realistic-looking first-person shooter called Combat Arms. Aimed at the non-hardcore audience, CA will feature RPG attributes such as experience points and levels, as well as a socialization aspect that includes the creation of clans.

This free-to-play title will begin its closed beta on May 30th on FilePlanet. This is an interesting move for Nexon, and a refreshing change of pace. Will this mercenary shooter find a place within the hearts of its already vast userbase? Only time will tell. The gameplay trailer is embedded after the jump!

[Thanks, Robert!]