Just before the New Year holiday in Japan, ads for a smartphone game called Granblue Fantasy began appearing on television and in magazines. Granblue was already huge in Japan with more than 7 million people downloading it to fly giant airships and battle an evil empire with swords and magic. Cygames Inc., the company that makes the game, also told people about a new promotion: For a limited time, it would be easier to win a few characters, including one named Anchira.
Anchira is a rarely-seen, much-sought-after ally: blonde, scantily-clad, big-eyed. She’s the kind of partner that can mean the difference between victory and defeat because of special healing powers. Players can win access to her with mysterious crystals that cost 300 yen (USD2.67) apiece and then cracking them open to find out what’s inside. Sometimes they contain valuable characters like Anchira; other times they hold weapons or armor. Under normal circumstances, there’s a 3 percent chance of locating rare characters like Anchira, but for the week Cygames was running its promotion, the chances would double.
Delirium ensued. Millions of new players downloaded Granblue. People across the country spent hours on end chasing the promoted characters.
One Japanese man, who goes by “Taste” online, began playing about three hours before midnight on Dec. 31, streaming his session in a game players’ chatroom. For hours he spent money in furious pursuit of Anchira. His audience swelled from a handful to more than 10,000 as the New Year arrived, and before he knew it, Taste burned through $2,665 without unlocking her. The chatroom crowd alternated from mockery to pity, wondering when his credit card company would cut him off. But Taste kept going, buying hundreds and then thousands of tokens. Finally at about 3 a.m., on attempt No. 2,276, he unlocked Anchira. The crowd erupted. He had spent $6,065.
Video of Taste’s expensive session was circulated widely in the weeks after the episode, sparking a backlash against Cygames, a subsidiary of CyberAgent Inc., and other top Japanese gamemakers. Players shared similar experiences of spending thousands of dollars on Granblue Fantasy and posted their own videos of losing fortunes. One man interviewed by Bloomberg News said he sunk more than $7,000 into the game during the special New Year’s promotion, and Daiki Kataoka, who lost more than $800 during that period, was so incensed at what he saw as manipulation he collected 2,000 signatures for a petition calling for more regulation.
“Unless we change things from the very core, this situation will continue,” said Kataoka.
Cygames initially didn’t respond to criticism, then weeks later apologized. It granted credit to some customers – in virtual money – for what they spent and will begin implementing safeguards yesterday so players can get the prize they want if they go through 300 unsuccessful attempts. That would cap spending on each virtual item at about $800. It also said it will begin disclosing the odds of winning each individual item.
There could be more fallout. Shares of the nation’s mobile gamemakers tumbled by a total value of more than $1 billion the day Cygames began issuing refunds. It was reminiscent of the hit stocks took in 2012 after lawmakers called some of the industry’s tactics predatory and passed tougher regulations.
The gamer rebellion threatens the status quo in one of the strangest and most profitable corners of the digital universe. Japan’s game companies have long been the envy of the industry for their ability to produce big hits. But the controversy is exposing some companies’ methods for extracting such huge sums and creating pressure for change.
“It’s the perfect fodder for people who are against the mobile game industry in Japan,” said Serkan Toto, founder of consultant Kantan Games Inc., which specializes in Japanese mobile games. “The videos are basically delivering the ammunition for people who are critical of the industry for being exploitative and greedy.”
In the fantastical Granblue world, players assume the role of a young boy or girl from a far-flung village, embarking on a quest to defeat a dark empire by traveling from floating island to floating island, teaming with other rebels and employing special talents to fight imposing overlords. But instead of wookiees, droids, and light sabers, Granblue Fantasy is filled with spiky-haired men, curvaceous women and dragons. The basic game is free to play, but players progress faster if they buy weapons and characters with real money.
The enigmatic crystals obscure what players are actually buying. Granblue employs a technique called “gacha,” which takes its name from Japanese vending machines that dispense prizes in plastic capsules without showing the contents. Players have to crack the crystals open – after they’ve paid for them – to see what they have won.
Certain forms of gacha have been banned in Japan because they’re too manipulative. Granblue doesn’t use explicitly forbidden gacha tactics, but Taste’s Dec. 31 video shows how effective the legal gacha can be. Taste, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, bought crystals in bulk and cracked them every few seconds. He didn’t bother with the game’s battles – the main attraction for most players – for hours at a time as he pursued Anchira.
He wasn’t the only one drawn by the New Year’s promotions. Another gamer said he spent about $7,200 over three days in early January to acquire Anchira. He’s too chagrined to reveal his name, he said, but he’s in his 20s and works in the tech industry in Osaka.
Some players shelled out a small fortune and never even got the girl. Kataoka forked over about 100,000 yen within hours, but failed to find Anchira. Inspired by Taste’s video and other angry gamers, Kataoka accumulated 2,000 signatures and filed a formal complaint with the Consumer Affairs Agency. The petition claims the company led a misleading advertising campaign and potentially violated the rules passed in 2012.
Kataoka accumulated statistics from his own games and other users, and came away convinced Cygames didn’t fulfill the 6 percent winning percentage it had advertised. An official at the agency wouldn’t confirm the receipt of the complaint or explain what action the agency may take, and Kataoka said he hasn’t heard back from the regulator yet.
Cygames denied any wrongdoing. “With regards to Granblue Fantasy, we are not aware of any operational issues or problems whatsoever,” said Sonoko Miyakawa, a CyberAgent spokeswoman. Yuji Nakamura, Bloomberg
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