Gacha games like Genshin Impact and Infinity Nikki make up some of the most played and profitable experiences. They've become so prevalent over the past few years and integrated themselves so well into the AAA space, that games populated by anime girls and middling JRPG combat are no longer a niche occurrence, but something actively sought after by Western gaming communities. Had you told my younger self that not only would these types of character designs be normalized, but that millions of players would be sinking time and money into a game like Infinity Nikki, I'd never have believed you.

Initially, when Genshin Impact launched, it felt like harmless fun. However, now that the seemingly endless pool of gacha games has grown exponentially, their detrimental effects on players and the gaming industry as a whole are well documented. Unfortunately, games like Infinity Nikki gain millions of players within days of launching, all of whom continue to pour more money and time into the world of arguably unethical forever games. I thought the fad would , but it seems like gacha games are here to stay, and their continued negative impact on the gaming industry is concerning.

I've Always Struggled To Get Into Gacha Games

There's Something Wrong About A Forever Game

Genshin Impact, as I suspect it was for many, was my first gacha game. As someone who has always struggled with getting into mobile gaming, the original style of gacha games, collecting static JPEGs of anime girls while grinding tedious combat, never appealed to me. However, Genshin Impact's high-quality production value, open-world design, and gorgeous visuals were instantly more appealing, as too were the many glowing reviews claiming that it was not necessary to spend a single penny in order to enjoy it.

It's important to that Genshin Impact launched in 2020, a time when people had very little money and were cooped up with little to do. AAA game pricing was also increasing in line with inflation and the rising costs of video game production, with new games going for the now normalized sum of $70. It's only natural that everyone immediately latched onto the free and sprawling Genshin Impact.

I can't say I enjoyed my time with Genshin Impact as the staggering number of menus, currencies, and gated content got in the way of immersing myself in its world. So, I moved on to greener pastures and thought little about its meteoric success and the potential impact it could have on an industry that often prioritizes profits above creativity. Years later, when its success continued to rival the likes of Fortnite, I considered returning. However, the sheer amount of new content and the endless story put me off playing it.

This was when I started to delve deeper into the rabbit hole of researching forever games. I quickly came to the realization that gacha games, including Genshin Impact, offer serviceable gameplay that's purpose-built to take as long as possible so that players invest so much time that they feel they can't back out. It preys upon the sunk cost fallacy that so many people experience in order to encourage paying real money to expedite the process. Then, once players have invested any amount of money, that sunk cost fallacy worsens, and they continue to invest even more.

This isn't a problem exclusive to gacha games as live service titles, including the boom of hero shooters, featured such predatory business practices. However, where gacha games differ is in their pseudo-gambling nature, in which players pay large sums of money for a chance to win rare characters, which they then need to sink even more time, or money, into leveling up or improving in order to make them viable. To incentivize players to invest, characters are outlandishly designed, with developers adding inappropriate features to further draw players in, often at the expense of meaningful arcs or development.

AAA Games Are Adopting The Worst Parts Of Gacha Games

It's An Unfortunate Inevitability

AAA developers have a habit of latching onto profitable trends and attempting to chase them, although not always to great results. The live service boom saw practically every publisher attempt to recreate the success of Fortnite only to, on multiple occasions, fail miserably. I thought I'd feel glee watching the expected downfall of live service titles like Concord and XDefiant, but it's brought nothing but misery. Genuinely great developers have created middling games and suffered the consequences of it all in an attempt to cash in on a profitable trend that no one seems to understand.

I can see clearly, as I imagine many others can, that, despite the failed attempts at penetrating the live service market, traditional AAA developers and publishers will take one look at the success of these gacha games and attempt to replicate it. It's already happening, and, in some cases, has been happening for quite a while. Capcom has a gacha Monster Hunter mobile game in the works. EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), alongside other sports titles, featured gacha mechanics long before Genshin Impact anime-ifed it. Destiny is unsurprisingly getting a mobile gacha game called Destiny: Rising.

Of course, all of this is discounting the fact that the currently popular gacha titles, including the endlessly grindy First Descendant, Infinity Nikki, Zenless Zero, Honkai Star Rail, and many more, are all AAA games. The idea of AAA gaming, especially in the West, has changed dramatically recently, with the likes of Tencent, KRAFTON, HoYoverse, and Shift Up all becoming household names alongside the likes of Activision, EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda. These games have completely redefined the AAA market, and the sheer number of them that have appeared within the past four years is, in my opinion, concerning.

Gacha Games Are The Next Industry Trend, And That's Concerning

The Profits Are Too Tempting To Ignore

I don't want to sound overly dramatic or insinuate that gacha games are somehow invading the Western AAA space and don't belong here. In fact, I firmly believe that there is absolutely a place for gacha mechanics in video games, so long as they're implemented fairly and in a way that benefits the core gameplay loop. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, the gacha mechanics exist solely to take money from players, with the gameplay around them designed to be purposefully frustrating or grindy.

It baffles me that we live in a world that gives Balatro a PEGI 18 age rating, but EA Sports FC 25, a game with gambling mechanics, is rated 3, and Genshin Impact is 12+.

What is particularly concerning about all of these gacha games is, like lootboxes and microtransactions before them, there are simply no regulations. It baffles me that we live in a world that gives Balatro a PEGI 18 age rating, but EA Sports FC 25, a game with gambling mechanics, is rated 3, and Genshin Impact is 12+. These games are available for children and vulnerable adults to for free without any restrictions and are designed to encourage players to spend as much as possible by implementing purposefully confusing currency systems and endless flash deals.

Gacha games have been released at such a speed that regulators simply can't keep up with them. The longer they go unchecked, the more traditional AAA developers will look to them for inspiration, and the more they'll continue to dominate the AAA space. While I won't be so dramatic as to imply that we'll eventually live in a world with just a few forever games sapping up everyone's time, we are on the verge of gacha and live service games becoming the norm, rather than the exception.

However, the thing that worries me the most is the player counts. Gargantuan numbers of people continue to play these games and invest large sums of money and time into them. I find it hard to believe that people are going into these games without at least some understanding of the inevitable cost or time-sink. This is something that will change the AAA space forever, and potentially already has. Genshin Impact is just the start of what will undoubtedly be a new era for gaming, and I'm not convinced I want to stick around for it.

Source: Monster Hunter Outlanders/YouTube