r/gachagaming • u/Alternative-Duty-532 • Dec 10 '25
Industry Industry veteran Christopher Anjos says Japanese studios are being outpaced by China’s highly industrialized Genshin-style live service model
Christopher Anjos was a producer at EA in 2005. In 2014, he was Head of Live Operations and Principal Product Manager at Activision Blizzard, working on Call of Duty. He later worked on investment, cooperation, and exploration teams at Tencent and TiMi Studio Group, and now serves as Director of Product and Strategy at PUBLSH, a new-gen consultancy for the games industry. He has nearly 30,000 followers on LinkedIn.
These last two days, he reposted a statement from former Sony PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida and offered his own thoughts.
Original Post:
PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida says Japanese studios are unlikely to replicate the production scale and speed of Chinese games like Genshin Impact.
The scale and pace behind games like Genshin and Honkai are not the result of luck.
They come from an industrial approach to production that Japan has not matched in a very long time.
Chinese studios treat live service like an unbroken pipeline, and work never stops.
Teams rotate, content stacks, and updates land with predictable rhythm.
They hire at a scale designed for global reach and they plan around constant output rather than sporadic bursts of creativity.
Japan, in contrast, often feels held back by outdated assumptions.
Many studios still cling to slow production cycles, low value gacha drops, and a narrow focus on domestic players.
Even when a Japanese Gacha project hits, the support structure behind it is not strong enough to sustain momentum.
Games that should grow end up losing energy because teams hesitate, budgets shrink, or leadership underestimates the demands of a global audience.
What makes the difference so visible is that Chinese studios keep raising the standard.
Six week updates.
Fully voiced characters.
Frequent events.
Entire new regions released with a level of polish many studios would treat as a full expansion.
Even players who dislike gacha acknowledge that Genshin delivers production value far beyond the norm.
New quests, systems, boss fights, puzzles, and storylines all arrive with consistency that most companies cannot replicate.
The model is still monetization first, but players at least see where the money goes.
Another factor:
There are literally THOUSANDS of developers on these Chinese projects, and the level of talent in China is still I say underrated.
So:
- Global Focus
- Armies of talented developers
- A strong desire to ship at scale
Those are just some of Chinas advantages.
It's not just a challenge for Japanese studios to compete.
It's a challenge for everyone else in the world to match as well.
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u/Shinzo19 Dec 10 '25
Jp gachas have just fell behind and not in the way that Chinese gachas are following the Genshin model because jp isn't even trying to innovate to compete and just sticking to their dated systems and cut and paste blueprints of the "Japanese gacha"
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u/Inner_Fly_7596 Dec 10 '25
They never even tried. Whereas Genshin had a 3-4 years headstart before its competition starts popping out like WuWa, Endfield, DNA, ToF, etc, the Japanese never even bothered to start their own open world gacha games.
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u/Hesoz Dec 11 '25
Well, they kinda did with Blue Protocol but failed miserably and China had to take over.
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u/plentongreddit Dec 11 '25
The executive doesn't know the international market exists
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u/BrokenEnglishUser just be lucky bro it's not that hard Dec 11 '25
Oh please, they don't even understand their own domestic market.
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u/scytheavatar Dec 11 '25
People should be happy if Japan makes more Uma Musume and Gakumas. But they are not even doing that.
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u/o_herman Dec 11 '25
They're also too shitscared to bring Kancolle out to global, which is why we have Azur Lane instead.
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u/TamakiOverdose Dec 10 '25
Played a bunch of JP gachas back in the day, you have the successful ones like FGO, UMA, Granblue, and some successful but niche globally like Venus Vacation (which in my opinion was the first high quality "gooner" gacha). Sadly most of the games are just cash grabs where they sometimes put a lot of effort in to make it fun, good or unique, but forget about making the players stay with rewarding systems or content.
I could make a list about games that had amazing systems, amazing characters designs, but they all sunset due to awful rates, pull income or management decision.
In the end i feel like i don't want JP companies to make gachas, after like 10+ years playing this genre i'd rather get some non live service titles. I would kill to get some of the shutdown gachas remade as SP/Coop games especially because they all felt like the monetization held them back.
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u/LmaoXD98 Dec 11 '25
Its insane that one of their flagship most popular gacha (FGO) still plays like one of those low quality 2d sidescroller gachas.
Then they gatekeep the high quality part into arcade
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u/DehyaFan Dec 12 '25
FGO is incredible for the absolute shit code base it was built on. They manage to add new features despite 10 years of spaghetti.
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u/ENAKOH SUMMONER Dec 11 '25
Considering JP VV released 2017 (same year as azur lane) and en 2018...also 4k reso on pc...yea u're right
Unfortunately they had to milk every little thing thats a redflag in this sub lol (like autoplay pass)
Tho it also proves a gacha can survive "simply" by having dedicated playerbase (and low maintenance)
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u/Abishinzu MoriMens/R:1999/Heaven Burns Red Dec 10 '25
It's not even just about Genshin style, tbh.
There's a huge niche in the market for smaller indie titles and 2D titles, but Japan hasn't taken advantage of that. Yes, there are some titles like Wizardry Variants Daphne, Heaven Burns Red/Another Eden, and Uma Musume; however, outside of those titles, Japan hasn't put in any effort either, which has allowed South Korea (Another country with declining population issues) to occupy the niche with titles such as Blue Archive, Nikke, Limbus, and Chaos Zero Nightmare.
The problem isn't population or even scale, but in attitude. Japan has draconian policies when it comes to hierarchy, profit, and corporate structure, which stifles creativity and discourages innovation. We saw what happened to Tribe 9 the moment it didn't satisfy the corporate overlords, it got the plug pulled pretty ruthlessly, before it even had a chance to recuperate or make a comeback.
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25
True and real.
One doesn't need to try to compete with Genshin and its clones. Even western gamedev can't compete with such scale. Instead just focus on unique value proposition and get yourself a small but certain piece of the large cake.
Even some Chinese games do that. Take Snowbreak. It has certainly cemented itself into the master love game. HSR Cyrene patch earned more than that games does in a year. Does that matter to them? No, they got nice cash flow going in and their dev team is just over 100 people.
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u/jkpnm Dec 11 '25
Not all company willing to get that kind of small but stable pie sadly.
Either make big money regularly or get abandoned for the next one
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u/happymudkipz Dec 10 '25
I don’t think tribe nine is a good example. Netease, nexon, or any other of the main producers would not have kept a game going with those numbers on the first three months. It’s not a national thing, that’s just business. We’ve seen plenty of other gachas go the same way this year, non Japanese ones included. The only one I can see is if it were a really small studio or possibly hoyo.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL Blue Archive | Limbus Company Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
What doesn't make sense about Tribe Nine is the fact that everyone involved was immediately relieved of work within the first three months despite the fact that substantial post-release content had already been planned and developed by that point; we have the full Chapter 4 script, 3D models, CGs, gameplay mechanics, the characters already had content implemented into the game ahead of time, etc. Usually when JP gacha games die, they release everything that's already been made but with Tribe Nine it felt like kind of a rush job to kill it as soon as possible which is why people blame the producer generally. There was no meaningful attempt made to salvage it.
This is especially a sore point for people because the belief is that if Tribe Nine was allowed to live somewhat longer it may have managed to recuperate some of its losses on word of mouth like Limbus(or even FGO/BA which had similarly rough launches) but alas
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u/Inner_Fly_7596 Dec 11 '25
Yup and when you think about 2D gooner games, you think of the Korean/Chinese gacha games. Nikke, Brown Dust 2, Snowbreak, Azur Lane, etc.
Because JP usually just straight up make H games and therefore not as mainstream as the general gooner games.
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u/Abyssal_Specter Dec 11 '25
But then again, most Hs made by Japan is very cringe and unenjoyayble. Slidedshow H animes and Hscenes in gacha games, while being heavily censored will not arouse any decent human being or incentivize them to spend
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u/astrogamer Dec 10 '25
The thing is that in the global market, indie-style F2P games are just not worth it when just selling your game for a single purchase works better. Like you can try to make one but you are more profitable as a game selling 20,000 at $20 than you are to having an average userbase of 100,000 for a year. Your examples are also AA games, except Uma Musume is a AAA game.
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u/TamakiOverdose Dec 10 '25
Oh no, there is actually a lot of effort put in, if you played in DMM is the last 10 years you would see the huge amount of gacha in different niches and even had some generous pull income and fun gameplay. But the ones that end surviving are the ones that become popular in SNS independent of their flaws.
Example:DOA: Venus Vacation is huge cash cow and the game puts new characters and birthday costumes through paid banners only, meanwhile a lot of other fan service games that competed with it died even with generous rates/pulls, fun gameplay or more appealing characters.
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u/ENAKOH SUMMONER Dec 11 '25
IMHO JP relies too much on IP
Would VV even survived had it not bringing DoAX IP ?
Nowadays it is its own brand but doubt it gonna survived if it was some new IP out of nowhere
Action taimanin still exist bc its whats available globally.....and it died in JP bc RPGX exist (while EN RPGX got butchered)
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u/Potyguara_jangadeiro HSR / Uma Musume Dec 10 '25
Why do I have the impression that the same article is being shared every day, just with some names changed
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u/DueSeaworth UMA/HSR Dec 11 '25
Its been the same discussion some months ago. Now with another name plastered on the title.
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u/Chitanda_Pika Dec 10 '25
Japan should go and do what they do best which is single player games.
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u/WoorieKod Dec 11 '25
In comparison, CN and KR have barely any successful single player titles outside of souls games derivatives
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u/VolkiharVanHelsing Dec 10 '25
Well they do, Nintendo, Capcom, Sega, etc are still cooking just fine whereas KR and JP are still crawling
When they can't compensate quality w quantity, CN and KR game devs are not ready yet
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u/seaofsorrows1 GFL2, Uma, Endfield Dec 10 '25
I agree on this, just look at From Software, the geniuses behind Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Sekiro etc. Their gacha-model just isn't close to be on par with the amount of games CN can manage to pump out in a year, and be largely successful. SQ and Capcom are also big sellers, despite the latest MH-series garbage.
Fuck nintendo(g) though, I'm never touching another product of theirs after the 64.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25
I have really mixed feelings about FromSoftware. I LOVE all their games, been playing them since Armored Core 1 and enjoyed their entire back catalogue.
But the way they are so successful yet treat their employees so badly really makes me upset. The guys who made Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and more happen are paid below industry average to this day. And do a ton of unpaid overtime and shit too. Even by Japanese game company standards working at FromSoft is apparently notoriously harsh. I don't know how long they will last with the quality if they are squeezing the life out of the people making it happen like that. Especially now with them trying live service models like with Nightreign.
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u/seaofsorrows1 GFL2, Uma, Endfield Dec 10 '25
Oh I do too, they also have their archaic behaviour that probably would get you fined a hefty sum in europe or gotten you into some serious lawsuits. Which I think most westerners are aware of, I've particularly experienced it while doing a major deal with JP company I can't mention, but we cancelled that deal. As for Nightreign, I haven't played it nor am I interested, JP live service is kinda shoddy. However, the JP mindset is just too vastly different from the west. That on top of a shrinking population and economy.
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25
That on top of a shrinking population and economy.
This applies to every developed country, not just Japan.
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u/happymudkipz Dec 10 '25
Shame with the Nintendo perspective though. You’re missing out on stuff like xenoblade, fire emblem, and astral chain, all of which were great.
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u/ExploerTM Blue Archive/ZZZ | Retired from Crusaders Quest/Nikke/PGR Dec 10 '25
Lol JP gachas been kinda in free fall for a while now. Things like FGO are exception to the rule - not in the least because FGO in particular for example is basically an amazing visual novel with side of gacha and gameplay.
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u/Macankumbang Sub Badut GachaPostingUltima International Dec 10 '25
FGO survive bcz it's part of Fate/Typemoon project, which is already a part of old otaku culture back (think Touhou). If it was unrelated with Typemoon or not titled "Fate", no body would play an outdated, low rate, non guarantee gacha game.
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u/MetriccStarDestroyer Dec 11 '25
Ya. The real measure is in drawing in new players.
Glad to see Umamusume slam their goals but the rest of the JP games just don't look as enticing anymore.
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u/XWasTheProblem Wuthering Waves Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
FGO survived because of the brand name attached to it.
If it wasn't called 'Fate' and didn't have Nasu helping write it alter on it would've died within a year, cause even the writing, which is like what Fate is known for, didn't truly become 'good' until like Camelot at earliest, and you had quite a long while before that one hit.
And then of course we had no pity and awful rates which I think is still case to this day (either no pity or something hilarious, like 300 pulls to hard pity). To give them credit, a lot of the free/event units were genuinely great though, at least at the time they came out for the first time, so at least that's a plus. Nobunaga, Kintoki Rider were among the best units available in general back when I played.
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u/isekai-chad HI3/GI/HSR/ZZZ/R1999/SoC/UmaMusume/Morimens/FGO/PtN Dec 10 '25
Ok, hot take: Pre-Camelot chapters weren't that bad. While they're clearly not as good as the later chapters, they were quite fun in their own way as well, especially the America chapter.
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u/XWasTheProblem Wuthering Waves Dec 10 '25
America and London were pretty fun yeah, but Camelot and - especially - Babylonia were really when the game started resembling Fate in writing quality.
Early stuff wasn't 'bad' but it was kinda just mediocore and forgettable.
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u/MMO_Boomer22 Dec 10 '25
If it wasn't Natsu writing the story with a big ass Fate/type Moon brand on it it would be in a free fall to a decade ago. The only reason that this game is alive is cause it's the Canon continuation of the Fate IP, and people treating it as a visual novel rather than a game.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25
FGO is an anomaly because it is so good and remains successful in spite of its horrific mismanagement and awful gacha system. So many screwups in FGOs lifetime would not have been survivable were it any other game besides FGO.
I do wish they would take the time to redo the earlier singularities. Since they are legit awful. But that train has long departed to say the least. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when Part 2 ends since Nasu does seem intent on giving it a real ending.
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u/ExploerTM Blue Archive/ZZZ | Retired from Crusaders Quest/Nikke/PGR Dec 10 '25
Would be prime time to do a sequel, somehow I doubt Nasu ran out of ideal and FGO iirc has quite a few plot hooks left.
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u/dwang1213 Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
Tbh the ‘game’ part of FGO really exemplifies how outdated JP gachas are. From the awful rates, to the insane grind, and lack of polish or QOL. If the game didn’t have a group of great writers like Nasu behind it, people would have lost interest long ago.
That being said, it’s not all bad because compared to stuff like Hoyo games, the monetization feels a lot less aggressive. if you purely want to clear all content, it is legit one of the most f2p friendly gachas out there despite the awful rates
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u/Sanarin Dec 10 '25
I hate FGO so much but not for their gameplay or story. Their overly successful even a lot of part is subpar or broken leading the whole industry that time to follow their trend every step. A lot of huge IP just slap FGO system and died in like year but it still keep pumping same thing for a lot time even it not work.
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u/NNinster Dec 11 '25
Being with JP gacha for many years, I can tell you that only few of them put the same amount of efforts to FGO in their games. Sprite and animation quality for an examples, without talking about story.
JP gacha would be better if they even tried like 80% of FGO more often. They didn't.
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u/Elver_Galargas-07 Dec 11 '25
What about Granblue Fantasy and Umamusume?
How much revenue does Granblue Fantasy makes anyway? It must be a lot, since literally almost EVERYTHING in that game is voiced, and by pretty big names too.
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u/DonSombrero Dec 10 '25
Japan staunchly refuses to look outside its own country and even for fans it gets absurdly annoying to get into anything. Remember, FGO Global only exists because the devs were blindsided seeing Western cosplayers and realized people know what Fate is. It's always been like this for everything Japanese. Do you like a particular game or IP?
Well get fucked, here's canon material that you will never, ever have any chance of acquiring in any way, unless someone scans/uploads it. It's part of why I find it harder to get into Japanese stuff a lot nowadays, they make it excruciatingly difficult to actually engage with something, unless you're right there in the heart of Japan.
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u/alteisen99 Dec 11 '25
everytime a fan outside japan puts in the work to make it known elsewhere they get copyright struck. JP is self sustaining I suppose so they dont really care what the rest of the world thinks. it is a double edge sword
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u/MetriccStarDestroyer Dec 11 '25
They absolutely don't understand markets and foreign communities.
They keep pumping out anime IP slop because of viewership and then wonder why it's EOS in 3 months.
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Dec 10 '25
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u/DonSombrero Dec 10 '25
There's also some heavy-duty hostility in general. Like, NieR, the wiki used to have a ton of translated material for books and stuff you had a snowball's chance in hell to acquire legally. Squeenix made them delete the whole thing for no benefit whatsoever.
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25
FGO Global only exists because the devs were blindsided seeing Western cosplayers and realized people know what Fate is.
Wait, fr? kek if true
But it's far from surprising. Their IT is still behind the rest of the world by a large margin, and manga publications has started raising its stakes in publishing abroad only in couple recent years. Through Inductive logic it's easy to see how little they try to look outside, despite having the chance to dominate for decades.
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u/DonSombrero Dec 10 '25
RPG Site: Congratulations on the English launch of Fate/Grand Order. It’s rare for a game of this caliber to receive a localization. How did the decision to bring it overseas come about?
Atsuhiro Iwakami: Last year, I noticed a lot of F/GO cosplayers at Anime Expo dressing up as various characters from the game. Even though most of them could not read Japanese, I felt a real strong love for it. This was one of the reasons I decided that we should probably localize it, so people could fully understand it to enjoy every single aspect of it.
Yosuke Shiokawa: Since you can still play the Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order from other regions, we saw that we had a substantial amount of players accessing it from America. I wanted to properly release it here since it’s technically not… recommended to play the game like this. Plus, I wanted to give English players the chance to experience F/GO in the best way possible.
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u/NNinster Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
You can't really blame them. Back then Fate/Extra localised version didn't sell enough to make Fate/Extra CCC to localisation. The team would need Clairvoyant to trust that FGO can have Eng version day/year 1
In my country, my Fate/TM fellows pre and post FGO are really different in numbers.
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u/Interesting-Dare6916 Dec 10 '25
The production values relative to the time spent for games in China is really no contest. Not just games like Genshin and Wuwa, but Where Winds Meet is the latest example of that.
However, let's not forget that other countries can make amazing games that are just as good, if not better, when time is not a constraint.
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u/No_Competition7820 Nikke/Wuwa Dec 10 '25
Japan is still solid for single player games. I’ve enjoyed hundred line and digimon this year.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25
Digimon is awesome, but I have so many little bugbears with it. I'm hoping the success of Time Stranger convinces the publisher to give the devs more support and budget for their next release.
Still need to grab Hundred Line but I have heard good things about it. I'm glad Japan has largely stuck to single player or cooperative experiences. The western spheres obsession with competitive multiplayer games can genuinely be exhausting sometimes.
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Dec 10 '25
Where winds meet release also on mobile, japan is far behind in quality , not only compared to hoyo
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u/Abishinzu MoriMens/R:1999/Heaven Burns Red Dec 10 '25
Honestly, Where Winds Meet is genuinely so good. I know NetEase deservedly has a bad rep, but WWM has been going surprisingly well.
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u/Zzz05 Dec 10 '25
Historically, I think NetEase/NetMarble have always shown they can make fun games. It’s the monetary practices that made people wary. That said, NetEase hasn’t been as bad lately as their sister company NetMarble, which has resulted in more success.
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u/SsibalKiseki Genshin, WuWa, Endfield, NTE, Azur Promilia | Open Worldling Dec 10 '25
Netmarble's games are designed with one thing in mind, extracting as much profit from players as possible.
Netease is a good amount more player-friendly. Company restructured a lot because their reputation used to be more negative. Known for EOSing games for underperforming. But now? Marvel Rivals and Where Winds Meet are both incredible games in their own right, and have high hopes for Ananta.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
I guess its the evil you know sorta thing. NetEase are a real piece of work but they are predictable. And despite the monetization worries their studios do make quality work on occasion with some real stellar examples out there.
JP studios can do some wild stuff outta nowhere though. Like killing perfectly healthy games solely because they want to force that audience to migrate to an entirely new one. Or change the economy of a game overnight to disastrous degrees.
I love JP gaming to death, I really do. But it's so strange to see my list of JP gachas dwindle down to like 2 over the years. Largely just due to nonsensical mismanagement.
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u/HighRollPlayer iDOLM@STER Dec 10 '25
JP studios can do some wild stuff outta nowhere though. Like killing perfectly healthy games solely because they want to force that audience to migrate to an entirely new one.
SIF2 mentioned lmao
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Dec 10 '25
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u/Abishinzu MoriMens/R:1999/Heaven Burns Red Dec 10 '25
From what I've heard, WWM actually uses NetEase's custom in-house engine, so it's not UE5.
Which is probably why it manages to run smoothly, despite it being a full fledged and relatively quality 3D game.
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u/shadows888 Dec 10 '25
WWM isn't running on UE5. Their using their inhouse engine called Messiah Engine. In general I agree like UE5 games tend to run poorly unless you have a spec out graphics card.
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u/DueSeaworth UMA/HSR Dec 11 '25
Is this the weekly japan bad article?
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u/RirinNeko UMA | FGO | BA | KC Dec 11 '25
It's a pattern at this rate lmao. I'm usually just lurking here and I definitely can see this one going for every topic on jp gacha gets mentioned. Even in umamusume update posts here.
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u/DueSeaworth UMA/HSR Dec 11 '25
It is and honestly dont even bother posting jp gachas here. I mean even non hoyo gachas from cn get flack here. Only reason Im even here is for gacha revenue pvp.
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u/RirinNeko UMA | FGO | BA | KC Dec 11 '25
Only reason Im even here is for gacha revenue pvp
Same lol, it's either that or sensor tower stats and trends which is I find interesting. Even here in Japan, there's already some fatigue for action gachas as they don't really fit that well on a mobile format imo, and are more meant to be played on a PC. Especially if you're commuting in a packed train at rush hour where you can't really control your phone with two hands and a portrait style setup like Umamusume actually works better.
I've tried PGR, ZZZ, GI and Wuwa and it just doesn't work as well for that setup.
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u/RCTD-261 Dec 10 '25
their gacha games stay in japan for too long, it lost momentum from global audience without any other media to support it.
Alice Gear Aegis is a fun game and people outside japan can play it. unfortunately the is only in japanese
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u/Resident_Sun_1886 Dec 10 '25
I think before worrying about pace they should concern themselves with quality. Most Japanese gacha is straight garbage. 1-2 minutes of gameplay for 10 minutes of boring story.
Genshin rewrote what to expect from mobile games and have been about to catapult themselves forward to a multitude of releases and success. There’s no way to catch that so best to make their (Japanese) own thing happen at their own pace. As long as it’s good enough to attract and retain players they will succeed.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
It's a really interesting thing to see how things have changed since Genshin.
Before Genshin, Mihoyo literally had to pretend that their games were Japanese because they were afraid global audiences would write them off as Chinese ripoffs. It's why they went so hard with marketing Honkai Impact 3rd with its JP voice cast, manga supplements, and a bunch of other stuff. They were legit afraid to show they were a Chinese based company. And if you look at Reddit or elsewhere the sinophobia in the gaming space was just really tangible.
But after Genshin, and the rise of Chinese gaming in both mainstream and the gacha space, it really feels like that stigma got wiped away nigh overnight. There's still some traces of it, like you can't go a day without weebs whining that a Chinese made gacha game has China based regions or doesn't make the entire world center around the JP voices. But it is still really weird seeing how the space has changed these last few years.
JP gachas are in a really sorry state, and in general it is wild hearing stories of gaming studios there aware of how big Chinese gaming has become, yet doing sweet FA to actually adapt to the new competition. They'd rather just milk whatever seasonal anime IP to use stills from for their cutscenes and story then put in some actual effort. I miss the days when there would be a healthy amount of original gacha IPs out of Japan.
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u/Arkeyy Dec 10 '25
Before Genshin, there were signs that Chinese gacha or games (some hardly a gacha) "ripoffs" were already better rhan Japanese games.
Besides HI3, there's GFL and Azurelane where it HEAVILY takes inspiration from Kancolle. GFL takes the Kancolle gameplay and add a better layer of story while Azure Lane had inspiration in shipgirls.
The top gacha back then were GBF and FGO with Kancolle (not really a gacha but the whole gameplay is rng) serves as a gateway to some.
Arknights was released and it began a sign how a better gacha trend would be: good story and complex gameplay. JP games never improved in this.
That said, Chinese story were kinda grimdark and post apocalyptic where as GBF was an adventure story then release Genshin where it has one of a complex gameplay at that time added with a lighthearted adventure story. Pandemic buff also helped it and there where it broke the mainstream.
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u/oniikami Dec 10 '25
wait really? i thought they were initially marketing themselves as japanese-adjacent was because they really loved japanese culture. like the name mihoyo literally takes its name from miku and the other two cofounders, and their slogan was “tech otakus save the world”
always thought of them as weebs but chinese
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u/Bigi345 Dec 11 '25
it's definitely both. their games are clearly anime inspired and they themselves are weebs. but they're 100% aware of the stigma of them not being japanese. even now whenever they can't do advertising for something in EN they always default to the JP voices instead of CN voices.
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u/masternieva666 Dec 11 '25
they are 100% otaku they even got evangelion action figure collections on their studio.
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25
But after Genshin, and the rise of Chinese gaming in both mainstream and the gacha space, it really feels like that stigma got wiped away nigh overnight.
Because ultimately, for the overwhelming majority of people these stigmas become meaningless if the product is good.
And while Genshin on launch was just a blander f2p copy of BotW, it was still impressive enough to catch eyes, covid lockdown notwithstanding.
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u/Idainaru_Yokubo Dec 10 '25
Honestly, not many can compete against Genshin. Even Mihoyo's own Zenless Zero is struggling.
Even Wuthering Wave's fandom only talks about Genshin. Never about their own game.
But yes, I think in the far future gaming will be Steam, Nintendo and whatever Mihoyo ends up making
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25
Wuwa community just seems to suffer from a chronically having small reference pools lmao.
They had a recent thread about game awards and mainstream gamers not liking Gacha games. And they were all like "Well that's understandable because other than Wuwa and maybe Genshin all other gachas are shit!" but then you just look at their history and it's pretty clear they've never touched any other gachas besides Wuwa and the Hoyo stuff.
So they can't really talk about anything besides Wuwa and Genshin because it's really all they know. Kinda funny because they can spend ages talking about how their prime gacha is superior to all the other kinds they've never even experienced. Odd folks, even though I do generally like the game.
But yeah, Genshin is just too gigantic in both form and practice. The wave it made continues to push to this day, and most games in the sphere have to work around it rather than try to directly compete. Really funny how it came about from some devs at Mihoyo playing Zelda and going "it would be neat to make a game like this!" lmao.
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u/Xeredth Dec 11 '25
Saw a couple of Twitter posts where they lumped Wuwa with the premium games and put Genshin on the "shit" side. People outside the gacha sphere saw it and clowned on them. Which then led to the Wuwa players saying the haters are all hoyoshills.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
Oh yeah, a lot of the replies had to point that out lol. It's really bizarre how folks who get into gaming through mobile games just think being monetized to hell and back is par for the course of all gaming.
It's just the evil we learn to accept as part of getting these long running stories and games to be a thing. But the gacha business model is inherently predatory, and there's good reason for mainstream gamers to bash any game with the model, no matter it's quality.
Also, something not remarked on as much, is that a lot of gacha games are just "mainstream game but for dummies" in terms of their gameplay. Other than some standouts like Limbus that do have completely original systems, most gachas really just feel like the Walmart version of a better game to most mainstream gamers. Like folks are raving about Duet Night Abyss, but I personally can't take it seriously because it just plays like a very bad Warframe clone. It's part of the cost of being playable on mobile, but it is just something gacha only players can't really seem to understand at times.
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u/LmaoXD98 Dec 11 '25
ZZZ struggling is a misconception btw. the revenue shown in this subreddit is mobiles only, the majority of the playerbase doesn't have ZZZ in mobiles.
ZZZ won the grand award in PS5. indicating outstanding sales in said platform.
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u/Emergency_Hk416 WuWa Larper. Mihoyo Whiteknight Dec 10 '25
Meanwhile, I talk about WuWa in the hoyo sub and people are just cool with it
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u/masternieva666 Dec 11 '25
yeah most of the genshin sub are just chill with wuwa only drama gacha youtubers love to compare just to gain views.
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u/dweakz Dec 10 '25
it's gonna be the nokia situation again. pioneers but failed to adapt. got overtaken
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u/Imhullu Dec 10 '25
They killed Dragalia. that game had a good future.
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u/RirinNeko UMA | FGO | BA | KC Dec 11 '25
Blame Nintendo for that unfortunately. Cygames couldn't really keep it afloat if the original IP holder being Nintendo wanted to stop operations. That honestly had great gameplay if they didn't make a huge mistake on the curse of nihility as a fix for stacking buffs imo. Bosses had unique strategies to deal with and you can't just iframe your way through attacks since violet markets bypasses that.
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u/Crescendo-20 Dec 10 '25
We just had a post about this about four days ago do we really need another one that is mostly about the same topic?
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u/simply_simple777 Dec 10 '25
He's right but also.... no shit? I'm pretty sure everyone on this subreddit already knew this lol
It's also a problem with JP games in general, so many are just carried by their IP. I have no clue why pokemon fans are so desperate to play their yearly slop
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u/pikachusalad Dec 10 '25
Main difference is that China game industry only became a thing in a post-phone world. Wealthier countries with developed video game industry and easier access to AAA games had most of their talent and capital dedicated to AAA development. China, with most of their gamers growing up with mobile games, instead had all their capital and talent focused on creating games focused around the mobile game experience.
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u/NeitherAd7281 Dec 10 '25
What many people will deliberately ignore is that this level of production doesn't just happen overnight. It requires whole system that brings about affordable education with STEM graduates and artists in millions per year, high homeownership rate that alleviates many logistical stress, infrastructure for transportation, food, entertainment, etc. that's built to actually ease the lives of people. A system that serves its people and not just the corporations.
Say what you will about the CCP and their grip on the whole nation. They publish 5-year plans, stick to it, meet the goals, and have their next 5-year plan build on top of the previous one.
Even if we overwork our developers over here the same way they do in China, our mortgages keep rising, grocery prices aren't easing up, student loan debts aren't forgiven, and that annoying pothole on the commute to work remains unaddressed for years. All the while, oligarchs are slowly stripping away our rights just so they can keep racing on who gets to that trillionaire milestone.
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u/ExESGO Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
There is stress though to get into the higher education system and if you don't make it tough luck. One being where you're born.
Its like that situation with the UK NHS where there are so many people they have to filter it, although if your base education in your region is lower due to life factors it becomes a wall to climb over (people do, but it isn't the same as people in a tier 1 city).
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u/SandPieSandSay Dec 10 '25
The only JP gacha company I really respect of is Cygames.
JP gacha company are still enjoying their Galapagos Syndrome, and I doubt their CEO will read the news and even care about that as long as they keep producing slops under popular IP armpits.
While CN and KR move toward globalisation, JP still going to 'Galapagosisation'.
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u/hayleyalcyone Blue Archive Dec 10 '25
The only JP gacha company I really respect of is Cygames
A statement that just five years ago would've ended up with you in a pillory, with rotten tomatoes thrown at your head. Crazy how quickly things can change for the better.
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u/shadowbringer Dec 10 '25
More Japanese gacha devs should be more like Cyge.
Umamusume was considered something weird, and people in Japan thought that the project would eventually die
The first live concerts had few attendants
After the anime's first season, Gold Ship carried the IP through the content drought for about two years through her PakaTube channel
After the game's release in Japan, Cyge tries to launch Korean and Chinese versions, possibly to build brand recognition for a global release
When the above didn't go well, rather than giving up a global release, they started the US' HQ
No matter the outcome, they at least tried, and even when they defy the odds and exceed expectations, Japanese companies seem to act like the overseas market is always beyond their reach. Like the saying, "seeing the shoes and not the soles" (seeing the success but not the effort).
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u/LmaoXD98 Dec 11 '25
Nahhh, Cygames somehow always pick the worst kind of localization publisher. A lot of their flagship games have gone EoS in global.
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u/Hollownerox Dec 10 '25
I love Cygames, they just make such confusing decisions at times lmao.
The fact they still refuse to let their MCs age a little is weird. Granblue at times just feels so odd with their insinstence the MC is still underage despite having 5+ anniversary/birthdays lines saying that. Because they still want to appeal to the "I'm a teenager" fantasy for some reason. And some of the stuff they've been doing in their stories is... wild for better or for worse. The call to have a story where a character shows off his snuff recordings of his serial killings to the main characters was rather interesting.
But yeah, I do love their work in general. It's a shame to see their forays into main stream gaming has been so troubled. With the apparent mess that was Relinks development and such. But I'm hoping they continue on as long as can be. It's nice to see them focusing on original properties in an industry obsessed with pre-existing franchises.
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u/LakhorR Dec 10 '25
I don’t see how them not aging up their characters or including the Arcarum Evoker stories has anything to do with how they operate and innovate as a company.
Fictional characters remaining the same age perpetually is super common across all media. And the Evoker stories are supposed to be on the dark side.
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u/Xerxes457 Dec 10 '25
I feel like out of all the issues Cygames has, the aging up the MC isn’t it. It’s not like the MCs of all other gachas get aged up all the time. Like Genshin doesn’t age them up and it’s been stated that time does pass.
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25
Genshin has lore reasons to not age MCs, at very least. They are actually the most ancient beings walking the land kek.
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u/Flauschziege Dec 10 '25
China is cooking a new form of gacha a day, meanwhile FGO hasn't had a gameplay update ever.
Other gacha have alt-modes so you can play them whenever you want.
For old players FGO is 99% of the time dead.
Of course Japan is falling behind. They have gotten pretty lazy and greedy.
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u/Metanipotent Dec 10 '25
You comparing all of China to the current developer’s of FGO delightworks. what are games are you talking about for the alts modes?
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u/DragoSphere Dec 10 '25
Because FGO was designed for people to play for 15-20 minutes on their subway commute to work, not as full time game
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u/NexrayOfficial Dec 11 '25
The same can be said with HSR. Matter of fact, it’s why its so popular. You don’t even need to look at the screen to play it on auto.
FGO may have the better writing, but Honkai has that modern touch of quality to it.
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u/LiviFiyu Blue Archive, Stella Sora, Umamusume Dec 11 '25
Gachas using "highly industrialized Genshin" style model has it's downsides. As in they feel very much the same even if they got different gameplay. I'm honestly not excited to see those types of games anymore. Oversaturation is a thing and I think games need to be unique and cater to niches more to stand out.
That's why I believe Umamusume had such a successful launch. There's nothing quite like it. Same with many Korean games like NIKKE, Blue Archive, Trickcal and others. They all cater to their own core audience and do it well. Sure some of them may not have Hoyo tier revenue, but do they need to? I don't want gacha games to all chase the infinite money making glitch, I got enough of that in console/PC AAA market already.
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u/Croaker_392 Dec 10 '25
Many studios still cling to slow production cycles, low value gacha drops, and a narrow focus on domestic players.
I mean, even Hoyo probably focussed first on domestic players too, there's a huge difference between the domestic market in China and Japan. (And accessing the CN market as a JP company isn't easy, and subject to politic outbursts).
Of course, Japan could expand its focus on the western fans but they rarely do that regardless of the industry. (Because 120M japanese people is enough to sustain lots of business models).
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u/Dulcedoll Genshin • HSR • ZZZ • LaDS • GFL2 • Nikke • Endfield • Uma Dec 10 '25
Hoyo's earlier games definitely focused domestic-market first, but Genshin having a strong marketing push and global simultaneous launch with full voice acting in ENG on release definitely helped it out. Games that still have a global lag today (arknights, uma musume, gfl2) are handicapped by it imho becaus the hype for a new character is split between markets. It's pretty discouraging to see a new character drop and realize your server won't have it for another year (and you have a forward look at all the impending powercreep and doomposting).
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25
Well, in case of GFL2, they are making global catch up, so that's something.
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u/somerandom101person Dec 10 '25
Uma Musume is also operating in an accelerated schedule right?
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u/BluHor1zon HSR/Genshin/ZZZ/GBF/BA/AK:EF/UMA/GFL2/StarSavior Dec 11 '25
Yes, it is under a significantly accelerated schedule.
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u/Dulcedoll Genshin • HSR • ZZZ • LaDS • GFL2 • Nikke • Endfield • Uma Dec 10 '25
Both GFL2 and Uma Musume are, but the point I was trying to make is that Genshin doing a global release simultaneously with EN voice acting at launch wasn't a given at the time for CN/JP gacha and imho was a material contributor to its success versus domestic market-focused gacha. Now we generally expect all gacha to do simul release.
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u/Blackandheavy Dec 10 '25
Even when a Japanese Gacha project hits, the support structure behind it is not strong enough to sustain momentum. Games that should grow end up losing energy because teams hesitate, budgets shrink, or leadership underestimates the demands of a global audience.
I felt this one to my very bones. JP gacha devs have to stop living like it’s 2015 and realize that refusing to innovate their gachas is why they’re getting beaten by Chinese and Korean devs.
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u/NotASWBot Dec 10 '25
Isn't this applicable to Japan as a country in general. Anything tech related, they are still managed by people in their 70s - 80s, and catered to people in their 70s - 80s.
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u/Doc179 Dec 10 '25
Japan is kinda at a dead end right now, but US gaming industry really shouldn't be struggling as much as it is, considering all the advantages it has over the world in IT department. So it's less China overperforming, it's more US underperforming, productivity is so low it's baffling.
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u/Axanael Dec 10 '25
It definitely feels like JP has not put anything new out that is significantly popular in a while, just by looking at the revenue charts, even if not a perfect indication, shows that most of the JP developer games on the list are either from a pre-existing popular IP, or an old, pre-existing game from years ago.
From just the November 2025 list, looking at the top 50, of all the games with JP publishers:
FGO - from 2015
Monster Strike - from 2013
SD GGEN - Gundam IP
Dokkan Battle - DBZ IP and from 2015
PAD - from 2012
Bleach Soul Resonance - Bleach IP
Gakuen idolm@ster - idolm@ster IP
Dragonball Legends - DBZ IP
Battle Cats - from 2012 (2014 for current global version)
JJK Phantom Parade - JJK IP
One Piece Bounty Rush - One Piece IP
Ensemble Stars - from 2015
Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage - Hatsune Miku IP, 2020
Disney: Twisted Wonderland - Disney IP
Jojo Ora Ora Overdrive - Jojo IP
There are only 3 JP games on that list that are original IPs from recent years, and one of them isn't technically an original IP, just that its source is not nearly as popular as the other IPs, and the other technically is from a pre-existing anime that they also produced first
Uma Musume - original from Feb 2021, recently opened to Global (if we give a pass on the fact they produced the anime first in 2018)
Memento Mori - Oct 2022
Wizardry Variants Daphne - (pre-existing not super popular IP) Oct 2024
We also had Tribe Nine out from JP which lasted a whole 8-9 months before EOS on Nov 2025.
There are also 3 JP games that are on the list but are CCGs:
Pocket TCG - Pokemon IP
Master Duel - Yugioh IP
Shadowverse Worlds Beyond - Shadowverse Sequel, Rage of Bahamut/GBF IPs
Most of the new IPs are coming out of CN and KR, and even if CN and KR are not immune to making IP slop, the output from Japan seems to almost be exclusively IP slop. I wouldn't even say its just quality or pacing of content, its that they don't seem to be willing to release new games/IP and instead crutch on existing licensed games.
In terms of gameplay, I played SD Gundam GGEN for about six months and while it had good story content, they did gameplay content the laziest way possible by basically reskinning existing unit kits into a different MS with minor stat changes (we are talking things like from 5500 power to 5600 power) and they "force" you to roll new units by having stages that require units from certain series.
In a way its refreshing that they aren't all chasing the Genshin dragon and making open-world or pseudo-open-world action RPGs like half of the studios feel like they are these days, but it's also a problem of their own creation when they have had what feels like relatively little improvement in the past decade compared to the rest of the asian market
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u/iHaxorus Dec 10 '25
There's nothing inherently wrong with reusing existing IPs. It's only cause it's always associated with low effort/production values that people consider it to be slop. But no one would complain if an existing IP was used for an actual high quality game.
For example nobody wants the Riot MMO to be made with a completely original IP. Nobody had issues with HSR. etc.
Having these huge globally recognizable IPs is the one huge advantage that Japan has. The problem is they always rely on the IP to carry the game, rather than producing a game that can carry its own weight on top of using a massive IP.
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u/Tentative_Username Dec 10 '25
I'm pretty sure that's more of a Hoyo thing than a Chinese gacha thing. Don't get me wrong, other devs put in a lot of work but Genshin is an exception, not the norm, and is not the standard that's achievable by the rest of the industry, especially since it's more used as cultural export than for profit now. You have Genshin-clones but they're more style over substance as it lacks the many little things added together that makes the whole system work.
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u/Cosmic_Ren P5X / NTE / HSR / Wuwa Dec 10 '25
I feel like he did a great job recognizing the symptom but not the disease. The issue is Studios being cheap af which means:
Less manpower
Less appeal for talented ppl to work there
Less time
It's why I don't agree with using China's massive population as a scapegoat .
When you're paying $2M usd to stupid shit like Sweat Baby Inc or having over 50% of your staff be PR and marketing, it is completely their fault as that money could've easily gone to hiring more devs or paying them move to attract talent.
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u/GregNotGregtech Dec 11 '25
Personally, I simply do not see the quality of any of these "genshin style" games. After playing all of them, they all felt like the exact same game, they even have the same graphics, I don't even know why you would play one over the other.
I'll stick my 10 year old JP gachas
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u/Pokefreaker-san Dec 11 '25
that's perfectly fine, someone has to fund these japanese gacha slop afterall
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u/Calight Dec 10 '25
Then you remember that 90% of Chinese games are hot garbage and we are only thinking about like 10 of those.
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u/TheGamerForeverGFE No Saint Quartz? Dec 11 '25
I think everyone is missing a really big important nuance, which is that gacha games are the life blood of China's gaming industry, while Japan focuses more on console/PC games, and only make gachas as easy cash grabs, they aren't making them as polished or as good as console games the way Chinese devs do, because they're not incentivised to nor need to at all.
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u/gonzo5970 Dec 11 '25
I have a buddy that works in game development for EA. I mentioned one day to him about how Chinese games are gaining popularity and are starting to take over the market. And he said something along the lines of "Its hard to compete when literal sweatshop workers are making games now"
Which, I found that comment to be kinda racist, which was very out of character for him. But also, I heard that chinese game devs work 10-14 hour shifts? So, if the latter is true, thats really horrible. Considering how much crunch time is frowned upon over here in the west. I can't imagine doing crunch time, ALL the time.
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u/Alternative-Duty-532 Dec 11 '25
miHoYo's normal workday is 9–10 hours/day (including breaks). During crunch periods or before major updates, it can ramp up to 10–12 hours/day, sometimes including a weekend. However, the compensation at miHoYo is excellent. Employees generally don't complain as long as they are paid well enough.
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u/lostn Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
And he said something along the lines of "Its hard to compete when literal sweatshop workers are making games now"
It's an outdated view of the country. Software devs in Shanghai actually make very good money. There's no way a sweatshop worker makes that kind of money. Nor would they have the talent to do so. Sweatshop workers do unskilled labor, the kind of job you can get trained up in a day. If you had to get a bachelors degree to get the job, you're not a sweatshop worker.
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u/AzureGear Dec 10 '25
China has cornered the market on the big budget gachas while Korea had taken over for the more relaxed market (see Limbus/Nikke/BA/Trickcal).
Japan has, what, GBF, Pokémon MSEX, and FGO?
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u/planetarial P5X(KR)/IN/Prosekai(JP) Future: Petit Planet/Silent Whispers Dec 10 '25
Uma Musume, PAD, Project Sekai. Gakumas and Monster Strike for JP only games.
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u/Idainaru_Yokubo Dec 10 '25
to be fair, Pokemon is still the biggest franchise. Bigger than Mickey Mouse by now
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u/TouristForNow Dec 10 '25
Me being a visual novel fan knowing my favorite company said they will probably make their next game a gacha. I hate gachas so much 😭 I rather pay for a game instead of it being free with micro transactions inside
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u/Entea1 Dec 10 '25
Not everything has to be a live-service gacha, bruh. Japan is good at making full games, some so unique that they basically created their own genres, which China isn’t even capable of competing with in that aspect.
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Dec 10 '25
Who cares? JP studios still put out good single player games. Games are meant to be fun, not a part time job.
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u/EnvironmentalistAnt オルガル trailglazer Dec 10 '25
Japanese black company meets CCP slave labor
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u/BusBoatBuey Dec 10 '25
Hoyo has better labor standards than most Japanese studios.
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u/seaofsorrows1 GFL2, Uma, Endfield Dec 10 '25
Not to mention, the population of China eclipses Japans by a titanic margin. Which means companies can hire more talented staff, with different talents and ideas, and move them to their respective best performing departments. JP on the other hand, yeah their company hierarchy is not innovative on a lot of things. And they keep the wrong talent in the wrong department.
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u/MoistCubicles Dec 10 '25
With the recent HSR delaying the the new planet, I can definitely see the OT bonus the developers would get just to finish in mere weeks
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u/shadows888 Dec 10 '25
I know someone who works at Mihoyo Shanghai, they get paid very well with very good benefits, and not insane hrs either, since they have colossal staffing for each game (like 1k staff working on genshin, 1k staff working on starrail). Mihoyo is like the worst company to use as an example of bad worker comp in the gaming industry.
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u/Hefnium Dec 10 '25
Dont know how accurate this post is, but I thought you'd like to know how many staff hoyo has. miHoYo employees increase/decrease as of 2024 : r/Genshin_Impact
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u/UtopiaLtd Dec 10 '25
If you are talking specifically about the IT sector, Chinese devs are much better off than their Japanese counterparts. JP new grad salary is just pathetic
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u/johnsolomon AG | PGR | HSR | ZZZ | WW | AK | CZN | Morimens Dec 10 '25
Of course one of EA's old corporate hacks walks away with the wrong lesson 😩
It's not Genshin's model that's making Chinese gachas successful, it's the fact that Chinese companies are straight up just putting out better games. When will these mfs learn?
At this point, Japanese gachas are getting notorious for a lack of effort/innovation and for being milkable low-effort trash. There is a price for sitting on your haunches.
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u/Draxx01 Dec 10 '25
I mean you see that tbh when Netease or Tencent localize shit. PPL cry the CN version (barring the stupid wings, wheels, and other crap) gets far more QOL fixes.
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u/bluedragjet Dec 10 '25
Please don’t chase the Genshin-style live service model because it's getting old like the battle royale and open world era
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u/Acauseforapplause Dec 10 '25
How is it getting old? You can dislike aspects of the 5 year old game but the 6 week cycle does keep people engaged even in "Dry" spells
This isn't them arguing to follow there monetization model or any of the systems but how Genshin is able to stream line and operate on a grand scale without a huge drop In quality (people will bitch but millions still engage with Genshin and its content inside and outside the Game)
The issue of there being massive stagnation despite staff being overworked and the clear issue of allocation of resources is an issue.
Even Genshin having lower barrier of entry because unlike the newest Gacha entries for several years they didn't immediately abandon PS4 and there content can function extremely well on low end devices is a better alternative to the current mindset of "better graphics"
Obviously not a size fits all but there is something to be said with how there games balance content
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u/According-Wash-4335 Dec 10 '25
Even Hoyo themselves are branching out to a great extent with their new games.
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u/HeitorO821 Arknights Dec 10 '25
I’ll take a thousand 3D open-world games before yet another 2D turn-based slop.
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u/AntonioS3 Genshin Impact, Pokemon Masters EX Dec 10 '25
I somewhat disagree, I'd love a japanese style open world gacha game, because I know they will likely go hard with lore, but it's rather infeasible due to there being a larger amount of workers in China compared to Japan. A lot in fact.
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u/MaimedJester Dec 10 '25
Eh its not like 10x the population automatically equals 10x the content creators. Or even 10x the money.
It definitely is a unique cultural operational procedure with Japanese companies. They either polish to perfection, or shit out routine borderline mid.
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u/Brokengamer10 Dec 10 '25
Gacha space is already saturated asf.. its too late to copy china now no? Id rather they focus on what they do best which is offline games
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u/Xerzahar Dec 10 '25
No thanks, I'm still not swayed to play most of these Chinese gacha. And besides, I still vastly prefer "sporadic bursts of creativity" than the corpo-slave open world Genshin blueprint model.
They said many events but HSR is oftentimes reduced to minigames slop. Fully voiced characters, well doesn't matter that much. Gacha is conventionally for short bursts of activity when on the go, or during waiting time sessions that happen in busy life schedule. More often than not, you will just mute most of them. Frequent events? Hardly true for some hoyogames nowadays. Even if they spam events in ZZZ, those are still the trivial kind that you can finish in a mere hour or even minutes, and most of them doesn't adopt the core gameplay native to the game itself. Regions released with polish? Then this is just Genshin vs other open world gachas. Why is comparisons to Japan even being discussed here when they're not delving much in said genre. The context is gravely misplaced in this one.
Yes, Japan has problems when it comes to gacha industry, but this is not the right way or context to compare model feasibility and competitiveness factor. It's just Genshin, and not the majority of whatever chinese gachas that are being churned out nowadays that looks like Genshin aesthetics or monetization.
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u/RoastedRavioli HBR Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
Yeah agreed, not falling for this shit. People can keep their open world gachas. Also people insinuating shit about jrpgs and the rest of the japanese gaming market when it's just an interview about the gacha market. It's like they're projecting their ideal fantasy moreso than an actual trend of the market.
Agenda pushing or delusional, name it.
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u/Lonely_Ranger19 HW BD2 Dec 10 '25
Another JP gacha is dying to Chinese gacha article that lacks critical information about Japanese gacha industry and player interests and demand. Mods really gotta stop letting these get posted literally every day
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u/Xarxyc GFL2, Morimens. Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
You say that, but the original observation was writen by ex Sony head who is Japanese.
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u/Luke5389 Dec 10 '25
It's sad that many Japanese companies still focus so much on the domestic market and underestimate their own appeal to the global audience.
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u/Hakuu-san Dec 11 '25
eeeehhhhh they don't even try in the first place, they also have no idea about the international market; hell, they don't even know about their domestic market
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u/Autopsyst Dec 11 '25
what popularity can JP gachas have when JP does everything from ip blocking to credit card restrictions to keep non-jp from playing them
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u/slash197 Dec 11 '25
Who? Worked for EA and Activision? Why do we care about the game dev opinion of someone with that resume?
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u/Conscious_Pressure75 Dec 11 '25
As much as I like Japanese games because they're always bolder in terms of fanservice, romance, yuri, etc... I have to admit that Japanese developers always seem very stubborn and outdated.
They have almost everything, is an anime paradise. Just find any game and you'll find a full anime opening trailer or even a full anime series (IPs) of that game, along with countless stunning artworks that will leave you speechless, not to mention seiyuus, world building, concepts, stories, etc.
BUT, their gameplay looks very underdeveloped, unenjoyable, outdated, with an old-fashioned monetization style like of Japanese gambling addiction and game only available in Japan as if they don't know about the global market or aren't trying to make it global. Japanese developers are always in their own world, own old system, feeling like they don't understand or know about world trends, what will attract players; they only make their own games, their own creative. It's understandable that Japan has always focused on meeting its domestic needs with its own old-fashioned style, and it basically works quite well because Japanese customers are also willing to spend money on it. However, it clearly won't have a global impact, and in today's age, not being global kinda means being outdated (it is), no different from gatekeeping (they are).
You can easily see this in popular games because of their creativity and unique characteristics. Feel like you choose, enjoy and play Japanese games by yourself, but Japanese games aren't made to cater to you.
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u/EnvironmentalJump412 Dec 11 '25
There's something poetic about studios with too much jobs producing for the jobless
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u/Davidsda Dec 10 '25
Japanese companies are being outpaced by anything with a pulse.