Today we are going to take a look at the recently launched new project NXPC-MapleStory Chain Game. First of all, I will start by saying that the MapleStory sub-platform cannot be registered and has been in a busy state.
Next is the parent company platform, Nexon is also in a mess. It makes me feel that this old game company is nothing but this. It was once glorious, and I wonder if it is about to die?
But I also checked it with AI, and it seems that NEXON's operation in Q2 of 2024 was pretty good. Thanks to the launch of Dungeon Mobile, it earned a lot of returns in China, earning 40 billion yen in Q2 of 2024. In the second quarter, the revenue of mobile games in China increased by 1691% year-on-year, mainly due to the huge player base and sentiment drive.
So I think maybe Nexon thinks it can make so much money by selling nostalgia, so it immediately rushed to launch the web3 MapleStory game to harvest the world?
Nexon Background
NEXON (Chinese name: Netmarble Corporation of Korea, or NEXON Corporation) was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1994 and is currently headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a well-known multinational game development and distribution company, especially famous for its deep accumulation in the field of online games.
Company History:
1996: Launched the world's first graphical MMORPG game (The Kingdom of the Winds).
2003: MapleStory was launched, becoming its most representative and long-lived product.
2005: KartRider was released and became popular in Asia.
2011: Headquarters moved to Tokyo, Japan, and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
2010s: Expanded to North America and Europe, acquired or invested in several studios, such as Embark Studios.
Market value and influence
NEXON was listed on the main board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on December 14, 2011. As of May 2025, NEXON's market value is approximately 1.83 trillion yen, equivalent to approximately US$12.42 billion.
MapleStory N Adventure Island Game
My impression of MapleStory Rangers should be like this: it's a horizontal screen game on the Famicom, where you have to keep eating fruits to maintain your strength, and then keep running forward to pass the level.
But the following is the MapleStory game shown on his official website. I have never played it, so I don’t have any feelings for it. If it was the FC type mentioned above, then I might still have some feelings for it.
Relationship between NEXON and (MapleStory N)
NEXON is the developer and publisher of (MapleStory N). NEXON plans to launch the "MapleStory Universe", and MapleStory N is also a part of it. N is a blockchain-based MMORPG, N Mobile is the mobile version, N Worlds is a user UGC platform for sharing games, and N SDK is a development toolkit that allows users to create their own applications.
It is said that NEXON has invested 100 million US dollars in this project and built its own layer 1 blockchain.
MapleStory N Games
MapleStory has a brilliant 20-year history, attracting more than 250 million players and generating $5 billion in revenue. Over the past 10 years, it has accumulated 50 million loyal players. It is precisely because MapleStory brought a lot of success to Nexon that Nexon also began to embrace web3 and moved such games to WEB3 to continue to reap the benefits.
According to the introduction (because I didn't play it), it also draws on the previous horizontal level-breaking gameplay. Different game rewards are given for successfully passing the levels. Among them, this reward is a dynamic reward with dynamic pricing. That is, the rewards in popular areas are small, and the rewards in uninhabited areas are large, and the prices of items fluctuate.
The most important thing is the exchange of this item (NFT). On his marketplace, this item can be exchanged for the token NXPC, and NXPC can also be exchanged for NFT. Therefore, as the number of items increases, more NXPC will be consumed. The total amount of NXPC is fixed, so it has a certain deflationary characteristic.
Token Economy
The maximum supply of NXPC is 1 billion (1B), and the current price of the project is 2.6 US dollars, so the overall FDV is 2.6 billion US dollars. For a blockchain game, this is definitely an overvaluation, because the WEB2 MapleStory, which has been operating for more than ten years, has only made 5 billion. Why is a newly launched project worth 2.6 billion?
Token allocation is as follows
80% for reward contribution, 16% for ecosystem (early community), 2% for IP, and 0.69% for team. It seems that the proportion taken by the team is very small. Most branches have been given 80% of the reward contribution. However, my question is that the reward contribution is not clearly stated. So the team can just take this part themselves. It is because they took too little that aroused my suspicion. If you took 5%, I would say that you took very little, because taking 0.69% is too little and too unscientific.
Let’s take a look at the unlocking situation. All of it will be unlocked in 5 years, and it is a linear unlocking, about 20% unlocked every year!
Finally, to summarize this project, the IP and the game were probably released by NEXON, but at least the most basic login function was available before it was launched. They issued coins in advance when there were problems with the game login, which seems a bit embarrassing. And as for the large number of unlocked items, basically just leave them empty, because this game is definitely not worth a valuation of 3 billion US dollars. A valuation of 1 billion US dollars at most is already very high, and they have invested 100 million US dollars in its development. According to the current progress, they definitely did not invest 100 million US dollars. Even if they invested 100 million US dollars, a valuation of 1 billion is also very high.
And the biggest way to play this game is to make equipment and sell it, so play to earn is still possible, that is, it is best to make equipment and exchange it for tokens to pay back. Unless there are a large number of people buying equipment, then can this type of game currently support a large number of real players? I think it is difficult, after all, this kind of horizontal version of the game is outdated. So it is not recommended to buy it at the second level. The only good way is to empty it.