MapleStory Is Shutting Down The Free Market

An end of an era is soon approaching. MapleStory has started the process of winding down their Free Market zones. News of the Free Market's closure was first announced back in November 2017, but steps towards that closure only started to surface on the Global servers in the past week.

For those who are not familiar with the Free Market, they were special zones in MapleStory where players could buy, sell, and trade goods with one another. Many players congregated in these zones to hawk their goods via merchant stalls or by actively typing out what items they are looking to sell or buy. They were some of the most packed and lively places of commerce across the MMORPG genre.

Unfortunately, that concentration of players intent on doing commerce also attracted scammers, hackers, dupers, and scoundrels of all stripes. Those unsavory aspects of the Free Market seem to be what sealed its fate. Nexon has more recently added an Auction House to MapleStory and now prefers that players use that more controlled feature for commerce.

Nexon will be phasing out the Free Market throughout the month of Febuary by removing items and features related to the Free Market including merchant stalls. Those interested in the schedule of phase outs should read the full notice below.

Further Reading: Official Nexon Post