Nexon America's pre-paid card empire
Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim tells an interesting story about how his company created one of the biggest phenomenons in gaming retail lately: The pre-paid card. Nowadays, you can find rows of pre-paid cards for Nexon's microtransaction-based games like MapleStory or Vindictus lining the shelves of any 7-11 or Target. But a few years ago, both Target and its customers had to be sold on the idea.
Kim and his company came up with a way to teach customers how it worked, right inside a browser-based MMO. "We had a quest in-game, to go to Target in-game, to the section where they had the game cards," Kim says. Target kept the cards not in the gaming section, but in the music section alongside iTunes gift cards. "So three months leading up to the actual release of the card, we actually had a quest in-game to go get allowance from an NPC, go to the Target store, go to the music section, go find a CD card."
The training worked. "Day one," says Kim, "the cards were released, they were sold out in so many stores. They called us and said, 'We gotta print more cards.'"
Kim and his company came up with a way to teach customers how it worked, right inside a browser-based MMO. "We had a quest in-game, to go to Target in-game, to the section where they had the game cards," Kim says. Target kept the cards not in the gaming section, but in the music section alongside iTunes gift cards. "So three months leading up to the actual release of the card, we actually had a quest in-game to go get allowance from an NPC, go to the Target store, go to the music section, go find a CD card."
The training worked. "Day one," says Kim, "the cards were released, they were sold out in so many stores. They called us and said, 'We gotta print more cards.'"
