
Genshin Impact maker Cognosphere – which conducts business as HoYoverse – has agreed to pay a $20 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), settling a case which alleges it’s misleading children over the true cost of obtaining rare gacha rewards.
The action RPG, which first launched on PS4 in 2020 and was later ported to the PS5, allows players to pull for powerful characters by spending virtual currency. With every 90 draws you’ll be guaranteed a 5-Star character, but there’s only a 50% chance you’ll roll the promoted avatar. If you don’t get the headline character, they can be guaranteed with a further 90 pulls.
It’s worth noting that you do have a small percentage chance of earning a 5-Star character before hitting the abovementioned boundaries, but the odds are low.
Similarly, you can earn virtual currency from playing the game, but booster denominations can also be purchased with real money from the PS Store. The FTC says this format is “challenging” and “confusing”.
Ultimately, in a response, Cognosphere said it believes the FTC’s accusations are “inaccurate”, although it’s agreed to settle with the government body as part of a “commitment to transparency for our players”. In other words: it probably didn’t have a choice.
“Animation-style games and shows are well-received by global audiences and players across various ages,” it said in a statement. “Genshin Impact is a popular free-to-play, anime-style game designed for older teens and adults.
“While we believe many of the FTC’s allegations are inaccurate, we agreed to this settlement because we value the trust of our community and share a commitment to transparency for our players.
“Under the agreement, we will introduce new age-gate and parental consent protections for children and young teens and increase our in-game disclosures around virtual currency and rewards for players in the US in the coming months.”
It sounds like these changes will only affect the American version of the game, although we imagine they’ll probably be rolled out worldwide in an attempt to avoid further issues with various other government bodies around the globe. They’ll probably also get added to other titles within the HoYoverse family, like Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero.
The company has also been ordered to delete any personal information previously collected from children under 13 without parental consent, and it must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act moving forwards.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 20
Sounds like a win. Would be nice if we could do without gambling mechanics but clear disclosure and warning is a step forward for at-risk consumers.
They should've just called it surprise mechanics.
Seems like no one bat's an eye when kids throw their parents' credit cards at FUT year after year.
@ShadowofSparta couldn’t agree more. Why can’t games just be games and not involve gambling elements, especially when aimed at children.
20 million is a drop in the bucket to Hoyoverse btw. Nothing changes and a few people get to buy some yachts, what a scummy system.
Also, funny how EA basically does the same with their sports games but essentially get a pass in the US. This is another case of "If the US can't control it, we're going to punish it."
Someone at HoYoverse is checking down the back of the sofa.
Is any of the 20 mil going to any of the kids who used their parents cards without permission? I highly doubt it. FTC just hustled some drinking money.
$20 million is cheap for Hoyoverse when their yearly revenue is more than $1 Billion.
I'm just glad i never like Genshin Impact. I tried it once, got bored of it after played it for an hour or two, deleted it, and never look back.
But this is one of the biggest reason why i personally never like F2P / live service games with gacha mechanics that involve real money. It's just simulate real gambling but worst.
I'm really sure Hoyo settled for $20m to "offer" transparency to players, not just because they were worried about being fined many multiples of that amount.
Man imma be furious if this leads to getting rid of the gacha system because idiots don't know how to watch over their kids. They already made shooters completely worse by getting rid of lootboxes and instead locking every piece of cool cosmetic behind absurd prices
Next thing you know. We'll have to pay $15 for every character that comes out cause people are stupid
@PuppetMaster Yeah, same — I was genuinely curious at one point so I gave it go, but it just felt like a very mid-tier third person action game, and considering the amount of hours it apparently takes to play, I realised I had far more better games I could be devoting my time to.
This isn't enough! Needs to be in the hundreds of millions to make an impact. FTC needs to have a hardline stance on gambling being promoted to kids. If you pay money for a CHANCE at something, it's gambling.
On the other side of the coin, parents need to be a lot more disciplined with what they allow their children to pay money for in games. It has to be done on both fronts or it will never succeed.
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When the next in-game survey arrives, I'll definitely put in 2015 as my birth year. 🤫🤭
@z0d15g0d “ the 20 mil going to any of the kids “
That was my first thought. If the FTC got involved then some parents were probably complaining. I’d rather see a class action lawsuit refund the customers than the FTC getting the money.
Is there a character in Genshin who is just flat out a chibi Aloy clone or is that a licensed cross over appearance?
Do we know for sure If Hoyoverse Cognosphere whoever paid the $20 mil only for Genshin or is the money tribute to our new godfather to allow them to operate all of their games in the US?
MiHoyo's 2024 financial report showed a monthly average revenue of $633 million per month.
$20 million one time fine is a chump change for them.
Bruh they have literal ***** u money 20 million is nothing
Just so everyone is aware. The game is rated TEEN. That means that they are not promoting gambling to children they are promoting gambling to TEENagers—a big difference.
@Andee With this game massive popularity, i'm glad i'm not the only one who feels the same haha.
@rjejr It's an official licensed crossover chibi version of Aloy.
They should be paying in the billions
@MrMagic " official licensed crossover chibi version of Aloy"
Thank you. That does make me feel better. I'm all for paying homage and crossovers but if they just called her like Ahoy w/ an H or something, well not a fan of blatant knockoffs. I'm not going to fair well in the upcoming age of AI created games. 😫
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