MapleStory N launches in 2 weeks — but not in the USA

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We now know what’s been hinted at for a while: MapleStory’s crypto spinoff, MapleStory N, is finally launching on May 15.

On May 8, players in select countries will be able to pre-download the game.

The new game will be a 2D, sidescrolling MMORPG like the original game. MapleStory N is part of MapleStory Universe (MSU), which also includes plans for a mobile game version for players plus MapleStory N SDK and Project ModN (a blockchain game sandbox) for developers.

MapleStory N uses its own Avalanche L1 (also referred to as a subnet) to facilitate player-to-player game item trading without an in-game shop. Players will be able to buy and sell in-game items and create game items, too.

MapleStory N will have a built-in anticheat feature and use AvaCloud’s security infrastructure. The game has been tested with millions of onchain activities already across roughly 972,000 registered wallets. The team estimates they had about 506,000 total users during the prelaunch period.

The original MapleStory game from Nexon sports a pixelated “chibi” anime aesthetic where players can choose from different character classes such as warrior, magician, bowman, thief or pirate. Players can join guilds, auction items, enhance items, level up, navigate dungeons, battle monsters and bosses, and select new skills — to name a few ways players engage with the world.

But there’s a hitch with MapleStory N: It won’t be available in the US, most of Europe, or countries like Japan and South Korea.

MSU’s terms put forth a long list of over 50 restricted countries — that’s 1 in 4 countries in the world. Ten months ago, some Redditors noticed this. Notably, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, India, and some countries in southeast Asia are not on that restricted list:

That list is still the case today, though MapleStory N is apparently trying to support more regions.

Being banned in the US and much of Europe could pose a significant problem for this game, because it won’t really be able to reach Western audiences, which make up a large part of the game industry’s spenders. South Korea and Japan are also important markets in gaming.

In fact, MSN will not be available in the top 7 largest gaming markets globally. It will only be available in 2 of the top 10 markets by revenue (Mexico and Canada).

Yes, players may try to use VPNs to get around these restrictions, but some platforms are able to identify and block VPN use.

What’s strange is that other crypto games, like Off The Grid, have launched with a token and dedicated Avalanche L1 in the US without problems.

MapleStory’s terms say that all of these countries are barred from playing its game because of “the status of crypto sanction or regulations in each country.”

But the US, under Trump, has pivoted toward a favorable stance on cryptocurrencies overall. The SEC has also dismissed a slew of prior investigations into OpenSea, Uniswap, and others.

If the MSU doesn’t change its terms, this game won’t get nearly the audience it otherwise could. I think that’s sad, because this one is promising.