Remember the uproar that was stirred when folks thought that EA's Battlefield: Bad Company would have weapons only available for purchase? For the few of you who actually liked the idea, Nexon presents Combat Arms, their first multiplayer online FPS. Along with a hearty selection of free weapons, Nexon allows players to purchase new weapons adn equipment from their online store, tricking out their character to their hearts' and wallets' content.

You can head over to the official website to download the game for free and check out the tons of new content Nexon has added in honour of today's official launch, including new weapons, a new map, and the addition of a new game mode, Capture the Flag. Wait, they've only just added Capture the Flag? This should be entertaining.

Combat Arms [Official Website]

Nexon has revealed its very first North American-developed game (for the North American market), Sugar Rush Arena, which is now in closed beta. The game is a casual MMOG like other Nexon titles, but was developed in Vancouver as opposed to South Korea. Like Nexon's other titles, the game is free to play, but will offer virtual items and upgrades for purchase:

The title will allow players to fight against each other while trying to collect virtual coins ....

The development team working on Sugar Rush Arena is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment.

Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

I presume if this is a successful move, we can expect to see more games targeted at the Western market being developed in the West; perhaps this is heralding a new trend?

Nexon Reveals First Western-Developed Title [Worlds In Motion]

Nexon America, publisher of MapleStory, KartRider and Mabinogi, announced it'll launch a free online FPS called Combat Arms, slated to release later this summer.

The company touted the game's "highly customisable" aspect, from the look of characters to the guns and equipment. Match wins are rewarded with in-game currency in addition to XP, both of which allow players more customisation options. Nexon also said the game weighs the community aspect heavily, with a clan focus and some social network-style features.

Though there's no specific release date confirmed, the closed beta begins May 30th, so if you're interested you can try your luck; full release follows the jump.

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Min Kim, Nexon America's director of game operations, sat down with Gamasutra to talk about the free to play model, Nexon's expansion to the 360 and the DS. On the issue of people dismissing the business model:

I don't want to discount people, but I don't think they're doing all the right research, because I see all the misconceptions that people have about what our business is. If they're going to ask the right questions, we could probably tell them.

Or if they would just go in and experience our games. A lot of people talk about it like, "Hey, this can't work," or "It doesn't have the right balance," and then when I ask them questions like, "Have you played it or seen it?" they're like, "No, but it's like this!" and I'm like... (laughs)

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Eee! Singing sheep! Nexon's not-new-but-new-to-the-US MMORPG Mabinogi is moving to open beta as of this coming Wednesday. The Harvest Moon-meets-MMORPG has already been through a closed beta and pre-open beta test run, apparently to a good response. You can sign up at the Mabinogi website or over at FilePlanet. I'm a total sucker for stuff like this, so I'll be wandering over to check it out. Full release after the jump:

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It all started with a gothic Lolita dress. A 16 year-old Japanese gamer has been arrested by cops from Tokyo Metropolitan Police's "Hi-Tech Crimes Control Center" for stealing 36 million yen ($US 325,000) worth of virtual currency that's used in online RPG Mabinogi. The teen obtained the ID and password of an employee at the Tokyo branch of Korean game company NEXON. With that info, he accessed the company's servers and filled his virtual pockets with in-game money. He allegedly converted amount 600,000 yen ($US 5,500) into real cash, which he spent on books and software. The teen has confessed, saying:

I originally wanted the dress worn by the princess, but I just ended up racking up a bunch of game points.

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Nexon is adding to its US stable of free-to-play MMOs with Mabinogi, the Celtic and Welsh-themed game which launches a closed beta on 30 January. It sounds like MMO-meets-Harvest Moon, with promises of "offering players a 'life' experience" - characters age at a set rate, can participate in mundane tasks like farming, writing music, and getting married in addition to the usual battles-and-quests. I was delighted to see faint whispers of deliciously bad press releases for Asian MMOs:

President and CEO John H. Chi commented, "Playing Mabinogi is about more than just fighting and normal MMO fare. This is a chance for gamers to live a fantasy life in a place where communities build mutual beliefs of family, friendship and hard work."

And cute sheep prominently featured on the main page. I'm a sucker for fuzzy sheep - and if they're singing fuzzy sheep, so much the better. No details yet on when the doors of Mabinogi will be thrown open for the public at large, but it looks like they're still taking applications for closed beta testers over at the Mabinogi website

Nexon Announces Mabinogi [Worlds In Motion]

Game Watch are reporting that Counter-Strike Online, Valve and Nexon's shot at total Asian gaming domination, just enjoyed a successful three-day closed beta. Around 170,000 Korean CS players took a shot at the upcoming, heavily localised, Steam-free version of the classic FPS, which among other tweaks features some new maps and new weapons. CSO is scheduled for release in Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.
[Game Watch]

Nexon - the Korean company responsible for MapleStory and KartRider - has been expanding (quietly) beyond its home borders. With MapleStory already in the US and KartRider due to launch sometime in the near future, Nexon's been making a quiet-but-succesful entry into Western markets. Worlds In Motion has an interview up with Min Kim of Nexon America talking about MapleStory, KartRider, the Nexon recipe for success, and what's next for the company. Not surprisingly, great swaths of his thoughts are pretty sensible (in a market glutted with free-to-play games, yours better be fun or else no one's going to play it), but sensible and game company plans do not always go hand in hand.

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Nexon and Wizards of the Coast have paired up to offer the US and Canada the 'MapleStory iTrading Card Game (iTCG),' starting this November (aren't we so lucky?). The cards will offer players the chance to, uh, do the card battle thing, but also give access to new (and exclusive, mind you) parts of the regular game. I'm having bad flashbacks to elementary school, when Magic: The Gathering was all the rage.

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