Genshin Impact developer miHoYo wasn’t prepared for the sheer vitriol of fan response to their underwhelming selection of 1st Anniversary rewards, and after a damaging wave of online recoil, finally broke radio silence to throw players a bone. The free-to-play, pay-to-win anime-style gacha RPG shocked the gaming market by earning over $1 billion on mobile devices alone within the first six months of launch, and now entertains a community of over 3 million dedicated inhabitants willing to drop thousands of dollars on their favorite characters. Unfortunately for miHoYo, this unprecendented profit is not without cost.
Genshin Impact fans received an in-game message titled “Thank You to All Our Travelers (1/4)”, implying an anticipated total of four gifts. This first message delivered 400 Primogems and "Wings of Shimmering Galaxy," a new stylized wind glider. After storming Genshin’s social media with an onslaught of criticism for the past week in the wake of lukewarm Anniversary details, some fans softened at miHoYo’s perceived olive branch. Others found this particular gift to look a little too familiar.
Genshin Impact is Being Review Bombed
MiHoYo included in its Version 2.1 Update Notice a sneak peak of the “Boundless Symphony” bundle, consisting of the “Wings of Poetic Melodies” Special Wind Glider among other furnishing and namecard exclusives. Previous leaks already revealed the glider design back in August, along with an estimated retail of $30 USD. Now some fans are offended at the re-appearance of this same glider and the transparent attempt at damage control.
The outrage has caused division among Genshin Impact players as the majority expresses disappoinment proportionate to a video game, while a small outlier of protesters cause collatoral damage in a personal crusade. As the Anniversary date of September 28th came and went with no further acknowledgement on miHoYo's part, this heated faction of the fanbase resorted to review bombing the game’s Google Play score from 4.5 down to a low of 1.9, before Google was forced to step in and remove “bot” reviews. This evolved into harassment towards irrelevant Chinese-based games and even voice actors absolutely uninvolved with corporate decision-making.
Others are content with the “Moonlight Merriment” Moonchase Festival event to mark Genshin Impact’s 1st Anniversary. Version 1.3 hosted a similar “Lantern Rite Festival” with a nearly identical log-in special plus choice of free 4* star character, a desirable bonus omitted from Moonchase. “Windblume Festival” was released in Version 1.4 – now in 2.1, many view the Moonchase Festival as a long overdue, inevitable engagement push unreleated to the date, and this might be the crux of where miHoYo’s entire Anniversary foresight fell flat.
MiHoYo has responded earnestly to community discourse before: Zhongli received a power buff after his debut following performance complaints. However, as Genshin Impact grows more popular, developer attentiveness has grown quieter, and the Anniversary fiasco is viewed by many as just the tipping point over a steep cliff of miscommunication and dismissiveness towards longstanding issues in favor of greedy cash-grabs. With vocal players renouncing Genshin Impact altogether, the remaining fanbase is left with a bad aftertaste of what should have been a veritable PR feast for miHoYo, profitable in both goodwill and future earnings.
Genshin Impact is available on mobile devices, PC, PS4, and PS5.