The South Korean developer and publisher Webzen, the company behind the MMORPG MU Archangel, has been reportedly fined 158 million won (approximately $107,000) by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for engaging in deceptive gacha practices.

The Deceptive Gacha Practice

The KFTC found that MU Archangel displayed normal probability rates for rare item drops, but in reality, players had a zero percent chance of obtaining those items until they purchased a large number of draw tickets first. Investigators found that three different types of draw tickets had hidden minimum purchase requirements, meaning the real chance to get a rare item was zero until a player reached anywhere from 50 to 149 pulls, despite the game displaying misleading percentages like 0.88% or 0.286%.

Previous Issue and Ongoing Scrutiny

This issue is not new; Webzen previously apologized for “probability errors” in early 2024, calling it a display issue and offering refunds. However, the KFTC noted that only about 860 out of more than 20,000 affected players received compensation. During the period under investigation, Webzen reportedly earned around 6.7 billion won from the sales of these deceptive gacha items. The KFTC has stated it is strictly scrutinizing gacha practices in the industry, having also investigated other major publishers like Krafton, Gravity, Com2uS, and WeMade for similar violations in 2025.