ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained have both had their in-game marketplaces temporarily disabled as the team at Kakao Games works to sort out issues with some rewards sent out as compensation for server transfers back in December. As a result, these cash bags have been blocked from use, but the company has taken the additional step of closing the in-game marketplace in both games temporarily as they work on the overall problem.
Since taking over as publisher for the ArcheAge franchise, Kakao Games has been working on several issues related to exploitation of a gold bug to RMT activity. The latest banwave update on the RMT and exploit investigation is also out. The week’s tally shows 281 accounts banned across six servers, including 23 for RMT buyers and 258 for activities related to a cargo teleport hack and RMT sellers. The cargo teleport hack has led to “the cause for hyperinflation of prices. Additionally, we are investigating the methods these abusers have been using, and are working together with the developers on a fix”. These regular updates are separate from the cash bag situation, but overall, both are affecting the player experience for ArcheAge and ArcheAge: Unchained.
The Kakao team has apologized for the ongoing issues, and specifically the temporary shutdown of the in-game marketplaces. This is, of course, a major part of most MMOs, so the best case scenario here would be for the markets to be down as short a period as possible.
Dealing with exploiters and trading impact is nothing new, with games like New World also recently struggling with much of it, including several instances of temporarily turning off trading. The announcement was made yesterday, and there’s no word yet on an estimate of when things will get back to normal with open trade.
See the announcement over at ArcheAge.
