Genshin Impactfans were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the open-world action RPG’s 1st anniversary, anticipating generous rewards in celebration of its unprecedented success. The brainchild of Chinese game house miHoYo,Genshin Impactsoared in popularity within a month post-September 2020 debut and has maintained affluent enthusiasm among a growing fanbase ever since – at least, until now. The “community” events turned out to be not so communal, igniting vicious social media discontent across the globe.
The Genshin Impact Community Event “Rewards”
On September 20th,Genshin ImpactOfficial posted the “Genshin Impact One Year Anniversary Community Event Rewards Preview” on its signature platform, hoyolab. It announced the following:
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These lackluster rewards were largely disappointing to fans, but the most incendiary controversy arose from these events in particular:
Why Genshin Impact Fans are Offended
Though designed with an anime-style or “donghua” aesthetic (the increasingly popular Chinese animation often confused for its better-known Japanese counterpart) to accompany a PG-13 storyline,Genshin Impactwas not made for teens and tweens. This is obvious in the mostcrucial aspect of the game’s culture: gacha. The “gacha” genre derives from the mechanic of “gashapon,” toy vending machines that dispense random capsule prizes in exchange for coins. The digital interpretation of this childhood memory is unerringly geared towards adults, where quarters are replaced by hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars contributed by singular individuals.
Genshin Impact’s ludicrous success does not have miHoYo counting the Chinese equivalent of petty change, so fans are wondering why they’re receiving a capsule toy’s worth of content in exchange for their very lucrative enthusiasm. In the first month of launch,Genshin Impactraked in $245 millionfrom just the mobile platform. To put that into perspective:Genshin Impactis played across mobile devices, PC, PS4, and PS5, and is now approaching a twelve month duration. Forbes claims the sixth-month marker reportedly surpassed an astonishing$1 billion in mobile revenue. The exact numerical profit across all platforms in an international player base is difficult to parse with the cross-save function and hasn’t been made public – but it’s safe to presume the number is mind-boggling for this dark horse RPG.
The gacha concept does not exist without direct player participation and enduring investment. It’s received criticism and accusations of fostering gambling addictions in susceptible youth with juvenile designs intended to draw in a newly financeable stable crowd and unusually steep prices.Genshin Impactdraws in a frugal audience with the promise of free-to-play activities while feverishly generating new content difficult to maximize without paying to renew Resin, the game’s time-locked energy source.
The vast majority ofGenshin’s sales, however, draw from character banners and the “Pity” system, which promises the 50/50 chance of receiving the featured 5 star banner character after 90 pulls. Each pull, or “wish,” costs160 Primogems– a total of 14,400 Primogems just to guarantee a 5 star character arriving, let alone the event character. Guaranteeing the featured 5 star would necessitate28,800 Primogemsin the worst case scenario.
Acquiring 28,000 Primogems would only be possible by purchasing 5 6,480 Genesis Crystal packs at $99.99 – that’s $500 for a zero constellation event character, up to six possible constellations. Depending on where they fall on the pity scale, players have reportedly spent anywhere from $50 to $500 to secure their favorite character, with the biggest spenders (dubbed “whales”) dishing out anywhere from$1500 to $3000to secure a full-constellation favorite.
The Anniversary announcement smarts, especially as it’s delivered on the heels ofGenshin’s highest grossing banner thus far. The highly anticipated release of Raiden Shogun culminated in a$9 million peak after only two days, currently boasting the highest revenue spike of anyGenshin Impactcharacter. Numbers don’t lie: up to that point, loyal fans were still with miHoYo despite outrage from high spenders over a change in Raiden Shogun’s team synergy from beta testing to launch. Feathers were ruffled when one law-savvy player in the Chinese communitythreatened to sue miHoYo for fraud, yet Raiden’s sales continued to climb. The general consensus: miHoyo is giving back an atomized fragment of what supporters have given them, further disillusioning longtime players already suspicious of the content to Resin ratio and unexpected combat kits.
Genshin Impact Community Remarks
Genshin Impact’s reliance upon players with reliable wallets well establishes the intended audience of income-earning adults. So why is miHoYo “rewarding” customer loyalty with submissions contests for promotional content? TheCosplay Submissions contestand theFan Art Submission Contestare under fire for encouraging unpaid time, labor, and skill in “celebration” of a well-off company’s success. The working adults miHoYo courts with the gacha system are being asked to perform the equivalent of after-school activities for in-game rewards that translate to infinitesimal real-world finances – after the adults have already committed spare money and energy to breathing longevity into the game.
The top comment on the Anniversary hoyolab post accumulated 10,000 more likes than the post itself, accusing the company of greedy practices towards a faithful fanbase:
Unsurprisingly, theGenshin ImpactTwitter was not safe from negative commentary, from expressions of genuine upset to the tragically funny:
The Future of Genshin Impact
Rumors of a roadmap an entire decade long have permeated discussion boards for months. The GDC 2021 conference shed light on the next few years as the co-founder and CEO of miHoYo announced their intention to releaseall seven regions of the world by 2025. The estimated schedule is as follows: Sumeru in 2022, Fontaine in 2023, Natlan in 2024, and finally Snezhnaya in 2025.Genshin Impactupdates with new storylines and eventsevery 42 days, with incoming content sometimes appearing as frequently as week-to-week. There is some filler content as developers hustle to keep the enormous fanbase entertained and engrossed as competitors flirt with the addictive gacha system. WhetherGenshin Impactcan maintain that cadence of climbing popularity with an increasingly critical audience remains to be seen.
At the end of the day, miHoYo isn’t “obligated” to compensate their audience with unspecified rewards for financial decisions each individual made. But with such a long road-map ahead of them, it wouldn’t hurt to further endear their steadfast Travelers to the immersive spirit of the game. With less than a week left until the anniversary date, hopeful fans are still holding out for surprises onSeptember 28th, when a year’s chapter of grinding, wishing, and exploring throughout the land of Teyvat comes to a close.
Genshin Impactis available on mobile devices, PC, PS4, and PS5.
