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How Mihoyo's monetization works

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Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#21

Post by drdaeman »

nottorp wrote: post #4

Read this and try to explain to me again how going free to play does not corrupt a game's design :)

I have no idea about Mihoyo (never even looked in their direction, save for looking up what it is), but gacha != F2P.

Valve, even though their games have lootboxes, they got it [mostly] right by trying their best to make sure there's no "pay to win" (save for accidental cosmetics' bugs, which are half of the time are "pay to lose" and either way are typically fixed promptly) and all game mechanics are equally accessible to everyone from minute zero, with lootboxes being purely cosmetic.

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#22

Post by user_7832 »

hooverd wrote: post #7

I can second the part about Genshin Impact being harder to monetize because you can "git gud".

Any suggestions? I've been a mobile player for the longest so never (could) use i-frames/animation cancelling etc. Do you have any suggestions on what to do or learn from? TIA!

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#23

Post by waveBidder »

drdaeman wrote: post #21
nottorp wrote: post #4

Read this and try to explain to me again how going free to play does not corrupt a game's design :)

I have no idea about Mihoyo (never even looked in their direction, save for looking up what it is), but gacha != F2P. Valve, even though their games have lootboxes, they got it [mostly] right by trying their best to make sure there's no "pay to win" (save for accidental cosmetics' bugs, which are half of the time are "pay to lose" and either way are typically fixed promptly) and all game mechanics are equally accessi…

Valve has a money printing machine and is thus under far less pressure to follow the incentive gradient.

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#24

Post by jabroni_salad »

minimaxir wrote: post #6

The funny thing about Mihoyo's games is that they are one of the most profitable developers, but they could definitely pull more levers to incentivise people to spend even more money. Most gacha games have some sort of pay-to-win PvP and/or leaderboards built in their games, but in Mihoyo's games, having a top-tier team just means you have to oppertunity to get slightly more premium currency.

Where they really get you is the FOMO factor when a banner is about to expire and you have lost your 50/50. I wonder how much of their revenue comes from the final 24 hrs of that countdown.

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#25

Post by drdaeman »

waveBidder wrote: post #23
drdaeman wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea about Mihoyo (never even looked in their direction, save for looking up what it is), but gacha != F2P. Valve, even though their games have lootboxes, they got it [mostly] right by trying their best to make sure there's no "pay to win" (save for accidental cosmetics' bugs, which are half of the time are "pay to lose" and either way are typically fixed promptly) and all game mechanics are equally accessi…

Valve has a money printing machine and is thus under far less pressure to follow the incentive gradient.

I think it's more because Valve has (from what I heard) a very principled founder, and that they never went public (and probably won't) so they don't have any shareholders to please with "growth".

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#26

Post by jabroni_salad »

user_7832 wrote: post #22
hooverd wrote: post #7

I can second the part about Genshin Impact being harder to monetize because you can "git gud".

Any suggestions? I've been a mobile player for the longest so never (could) use i-frames/animation cancelling etc. Do you have any suggestions on what to do or learn from? TIA!

With these games your macro strategy is a lot more important than doing any kind of hair trigger reaction. Like your 3rd move in a 5 move sequence might come with iframes or a gap creator, so you need to keep track of where you are in the moveset and try to time it with the boss's actions. However, you are never asked for highly precise inputs.

The game is built to be played on a screen with your fingers blocking some elements after all.

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#28

Post by hooverd »

maxglute wrote: post #11
minimaxir wrote: post #6

The funny thing about Mihoyo's games is that they are one of the most profitable developers, but they could definitely pull more levers to incentivise people to spend even more money. Most gacha games have some sort of pay-to-win PvP and/or leaderboards built in their games, but in Mihoyo's games, having a top-tier team just means you have to oppertunity to get slightly more premium currency.

Waifu monetization model, more profitable to milk a lot of horny folks a little for a long time. I still can't get over Mihoyo built a tokamak reactor IRL.

Please do not milk the horny folk. ;) Well, they invested in one, and they also invested in a SpaceX competitor, Orienspace, too. It was a little jarring seeing their logo alongside all the ~serious companies.

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#29

Post by nottorp »

drdaeman wrote: post #21
nottorp wrote: post #4

Read this and try to explain to me again how going free to play does not corrupt a game's design :)

I have no idea about Mihoyo (never even looked in their direction, save for looking up what it is), but gacha != F2P. Valve, even though their games have lootboxes, they got it [mostly] right by trying their best to make sure there's no "pay to win" (save for accidental cosmetics' bugs, which are half of the time are "pay to lose" and either way are typically fixed promptly) and all game mechanics are equally accessi…

And here they come... the usual defenders of F2P "for cosmetic items only" :)

As much as you'd like to prove it's a different animal, the game's design was corrupted in that case as well.

Re: How Mihoyo's monetization works

#30

Post by hooverd »

skybrian wrote: post #20

Wow, that's a lot of jargon. Despite playing Genshin Impact a fair bit (my niece is into it), I didn't understand most of terms in this article. It's odd that they felt like they had to define "enshittification" which is everywhere and not terms like "dolphin" and "i-frames" which I had never heard of before.

Dolphin is a play on a whale, a medium spender vs a big spender or a free-to-play (F2P) user.

I don't know where i-frames came from originally, but it's abbreviated from invincibility frames, and is usually the part of an animation where your character won't take damage. I think Dark Souls/Elden Ring would be the most well known example of that mechanics.

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