Genshin Impact has now been available for a full year, marking its first anniversary. The third-person action live service game has been remarkably well-received, particularly for a game heavily relying on gacha mechanics for monetization and unlocking content. Yet it appears that Genshin Impact, like most live service games, has encountered an inevitable controversy. Genshin Impact is now being review bombed on mobile storefronts due to its choice of anniversary event rewards.
To characterize just how frustrated players are over the situation, Genshin Impact's Google Play shop rating has dropped from over four and a half stars to under three. That's despite Genshin Impact having over 3.5 million ratings, which shows how dramatically negative recent reviews for the game have been. Tracking shows that at least 70,000 negative ratings have been submitted over the past day. The rating would be even lower if not for a counter-review push of over 40,000 positive reviews.
As for what exactly Genshin Impact is being review bombed for, it may not come across well to those who aren't familiar with Genshin Impact. Simply put, players feel like developer MiHoYo is being reserved with regards to anniversary rewards. To expand on that, Genshin Impact is holding a 7-day anniversary "Passage of Clouds and Stars" daily login event. The rewards include 10 Intertwined Fate, 80,000 Mora, 18 Mythic Enhancement Ore, and 8 Hero's Wit. In summary, some gacha pulls and various currencies that aren't altogether rare.
While complaining over a lack of free rewards and, especially, attacking a game via protest review bombing certainly doesn't portray these players or their frustrations in a good light, there's some added context worth acknowledging. The Genshin Impact anniversary frustrations aren't just a single moment of anger, but rather a build-up of disappointment reaching a boiling point. Genshin Impact players feel like MiHoYo is being especially withholding for some time now, whereas it was much more generous at the game's launch.
Genshin Impact players were looking at the game's first anniversary as an opportunity for MiHoYo to respond to player frustrations. The frustrations were already there ahead of the reveal of anniversary rewards. It was only when those rewards failed to deliver any response to player feedback that a segment of players turned toward a more destructive response.
It deserves to be clarified that this negative action is being performed by a minority of Genshin Impact players. That doesn't necessarily mean other players aren't sympathetic, but it doesn't mean they are, either. Any game with gacha mechanics is going to have pushback to one degree or another, after all. It's frustrating by design. Whether review bombing is the appropriate response is another matter entirely.
Genshin Impact is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, and mobile devices.