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