A game entitled Genshin Impact made over $3.7 billion dollars in 2022 alone, passing both Roblox and Candy Crush to be the 3rd highest grossing mobile game of that year. While both Candy Crush and Roblox, as well as the top grossing game Honor of Kings date back to the 2000s and early 2010s, Genshin Impact was just released in 2020, making its sudden success bewildering.
Critics agree that the reason Genshin Impact and many similar mobile games have succeeded by an enormous margin is because of their gacha system. A gacha game is a video game in which players can pay in-game currency for a chance at winning a virtual item, usually a character or weapon. “For me it’s out of desperation. Sometimes I really want a character,” Salma Ali, ‘27 states, “I feel like I need it.” And Ali is not alone:, the appeal of gacha games is specifically meant to prey on consumers.
Similar to gambling, these games succeed on the notion that players believe that they could “win big” if they only spend a little more money, leading to larger and larger transactions. Teens are especially susceptible to this as many games are made to appeal to them through their graphics and gameplay. Furthermore, many teens are just getting a stable income that they might not know how to manage effectively. “They’re kinda gambling because there’s a risk, but it’s not like you’re gambling money to try to get more money,” Ali explains, “it’s more like you’re spending money knowing it’s gonna go down the drain.” Since these games are relatively new and internet-based, there are little to no restrictions on who can spend on these games and how much, but opinions have started circulating in major game communities who are now seeing the damage from these games.
In a Forbes report, Paul Tassi writes “To fully max out a character [In Genshin Impact], we are likely talking thousands of dollars. And plenty of [players] will pay that.” And Genshin Impact is not the only game profiting off of players’ naivety. After the game’s profound success, many other anime-style games such as Project Sekai, Infinity Niki, and Honkai Star Rail have followed, bringing in similar success. Many believe this trend has not reached its peak, and the gaming industry will likely continue to use these controversial strategies to pick the pockets of an even younger generation in the future.
