Fate/Grand Order is a significantly popular game both in Japan and the west, bringing together servants new and old spanning from across the entire Fate/Stay Night series and its numerous spin-offs. The mobile title has been a money-making machine for developer Delight Works, but this year has apparently been quite different for the company.
According to new information released with Delight Works' financial results for the period ending in July 2020, profits are down an astounding 81% over the prior year's profits during the same period of time. The Fate/Grand Order dev made approximately $12.76 million, in comparison to 2019's $67.23 million.
While most video games and their attached companies have flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic due to gamers staying at home and playing and buying more games, the same apparently can't be said for Fate/Grand Order. Players participating in the Japanese version of the game have reported a drop in events and new content, which may be due to the impact of the pandemic. With a lack of content, it's quite likely that players have grown less interested in the title, and may have been saving their money as a result.
Fate/Grand Order relies entirely on microtransactions in the form of gacha rolls, akin to Genshin Impact, as it's a free-to-play game. Typically, new servants are offered on a regular basis, and old ones are brought back for players to take a second chance at trying to obtain.
In addition to a limited amount of content coming out of Fate/Grand Order, it's likely that other competing games have contributed to the drop in earnings. Genshin Impact has taken the world by storm this year, and raked in an astounding $245 million in its first month alone. Companies with multiple loot box titles, like Activision, earned $1.2 billion over the course of three months from microtransactions, and even Pokemon Masters, which hasn't exactly been explosive in popularity, earned more than double what Fate/Grand Order did over the course of one week, pulling in $26 million.
It's clear that fans of games with gacha mechanics are still actively playing the titles and pouring money into them; just not Fate/Grand Order. While this is unlikely to impact the Fate series as a whole, as it has far more properties in the form of additional games, anime series, manga, and movies, it's unclear what the future holds for the mobile title. With any luck, the company can pull itself together despite the need for pandemic adjustments and can make a significant comeback in 2021.
Fate/Grand Order is available now for mobile devices.
Source: AnimeNewsNetwork