211 | MapleStory moves from monopoly to franchise

<p>Jon Jordan talks to Nexpace COO Keith Kim about MapleStory N&#39;s first year, and how AI will power the MapleStory Universe ecosystem in 2026. </p><ul><li>[01:00] MapleStory N’s first year - $31M revenue, 3.8M accounts, 650K engaged wallets.</li><li>[02:10] How the profile was different for MapleStory N to traditional MapleStory gamers. </li><li>[02:57] What we have done well is being agile and altering our strategy, adjusting quickly.</li><li>[03:25] The pace of updates for MapleStory N is 3-5x faster than for a web2 game. </li><li>[04:20] The Winter update - new maps, new bosses - has driven really good numbers.</li><li>[05:06] From Feb 2026, MapleStory N started recouping more token value than it emitted.</li><li>[05:40] June could be MapleStory N’s highest revenue and biggest NXPC token deflation.</li><li>[09:45] In web2, players play for fun. In web3, some players spend as much as $100k a day. </li><li>[11:12] Players really try to make money during the first 3 months of any blockchain game. </li><li>[13:36] Our goal is to work out how we can add blockchain to make MapleStory more fun. </li><li>[14:40] It took 6 months to gain confidence in our direction from the reaction of real fans. </li><li>[16:05] When Keith realized the eye-opening power of AI for games. </li><li>[17:13] Nexpace has been encouraging the team to build their own games with AI.</li><li>[18:55] We&#39;re trying to consider the scenarios of how AI changes the game industry.</li><li>[19:17] Initially, we were worried that game IP becomes less important in the AI era.</li><li>[21:18] You have to let your fans use AI to extend your IP.</li><li>[21:58] We hope our MapleStory Universe builders make more money than we do.</li><li>[26:05] Some IP holders want to tightly control their brand. We just want to limit AI slop. </li><li>[28:20] We need to change our view of what is high-quality content. It&#39;s up to the users.</li><li>[30:04] This is a very exciting time to be a builder, especially with MapleStory. </li><li>[33:38] Professional developers can also build proper businesses on MapleStory IP.</li></ul>