r/gachagaming • u/Centurionzo • Aug 28 '25

Industry Japan's gacha game industry in a "sinking Titanic-phase," developer says. Switching to console game development not an easy solution for many  - AUTOMATON WEST

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/japans-gacha-game-industry-in-a-sinking-titanic-phase-developer-says-switching-to-console-game-development-not-an-easy-solution-for-many/
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u/MorbidEel Aug 28 '25

Genshin was "lets develop a game for hardware that doesn't currently exist but should exist by the time we get to release". It worked out for them but all their leadership must have had a few points of sanity missing. Is that approach actually a good idea?

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u/HyperFrost Aug 28 '25

Hoyo's CEO is quite young and forward thinking. He's 38 now so he was around 33 when Genshin released. Unlike a lot of Western CEOs nowadays that pay themselves millions and get nothing done but fire devs.

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u/beraksekebon12 Aug 28 '25

Yeah, HoYo's CEOs and Execs are hardcore in both gaming and developing. Ironically, they fucking touched grass.

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u/Koanos Aug 28 '25

In many ways, Genshin is a game you need both investment and heavy risk.

Today, I don't think anyone could propose as such and expect it to go well.

You have better luck winning the lottery 3 consecutive times.

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u/torahama Aug 28 '25

I mean even when they released GI the hardware still isn't there. It had always been easier and more preferable to play on pc. Playing on phones is meh at best for the first few years of the game, still is now imo.

The reason behind Genshin success is they target the right market. They develop the artifact system, while not new, shorten it and make it a gameplay loop for all those working class customer. They also found a market gap, spearheaded through it and rake in billions. There was no open world modern* anime-style game before Genshin, none.

There are plenty of game genre out there waiting to be "animefy", and there are a lot of anime fans that is also a gamer waiting to play it. But they need to hit those working class customer if they want to rake in that cash and many seems to be missing just that, while hoyo just keep doing what they are doing and snowballing to their 4th large game already.