The Gambling of Gacha Games
Free to play. F2P. If you have heard of this term before, then you probably know what I’m going to talk about. If you have not heard of free to play before, then allow me to introduce it to you. The definition is in the name itself — a game that you can download, install, and of course, play for free. Nothing wrong yet, in fact, there really is nothing wrong with a free game… until there is. After all, how does the game company make money then?
One word. Microtransactions. When you already own the (free) base game, but then pay for currency or items in the game in a separate transaction, that’s called a microtransaction.
It goes down like this: the game entices the player with a shiny new item, usually rare, limited, or both. In order to obtain said item, they must use premium currency that is normally difficult to earn in the game. However, there is one way to “easily” earn this premium currency. That’s right, microtransactions. Some games just leave it at that: spend real money, get desired item(s). But others go a bit further. Other games have a system where the player spends in-game currency on a “loot box” that contains in-game items. The price is usually much lower compared to purchasing the item directly, but there is a trade-off: the item isn’t guaranteed. Every time a loot box is purchased, there is a random chance of obtaining the desired item, and that chance is very, very small for the best items — think 1% rare.
I’ve been using the term loot boxes so far, but there is actually an entire “genre” of games all revolving around this simple idea, called gacha games. In gacha games, you “draw” the gacha, which is the same as opening a loot box. The main difference between games with loot boxes and gacha games is that for gacha games, a core component of gameplay is reliant on gacha, while games with loot boxes that don’t qualify as gacha usually have items that are less impactful on gameplay.
Alright, with the explanations out of the way, let’s finally talk about how and why gacha games are successful.
The Game
Because the items from gacha actually affect gameplay, that means the rarer the item, the stronger it is in the game. Therefore, the reward of drawing gacha is certainly worth it based only on strength (Lakić). However, there is another aspect to gacha games that is important — the item itself. In gacha games, the item can be a character, with an attractive design, compelling backstory, and flashy abilities. As the player develops relationships with the story and characters, they would want this to be reflected in their personal experience of the gameplay too, which of course leads to the gacha (Woods).
But most people who start their first free to play gacha game have no intention of spending money on the gacha. So while players become invested in the narrative, the game also eases them into getting familiar with drawing the gacha, such as providing plenty of free in-game currency at the very start, or having gachas with guaranteed rare characters/items. Soon, the players get used to saving free in-game currency to draw for their favorite characters.
Suppose the player identifies a character they want. They will go into gacha thinking they’ll only use their free in-game currency, and if they don’t get the character they want, it’s fine. But then comes the pain of drawing so many times only to not succeed — it isn’t difficult to want just one more chance, hoping for good luck. So once all of their free in-game currency has run out, it isn’t difficult to think that spending a little bit of real currency will be fine. And if they still don’t obtain said character after spending a little money, it isn’t difficult to think that in order to not have wasted their money, they just have to spend until they get the desired character.
The little anecdote I detailed above is not uncommon. On social media, players often post their gacha draws, either rejoicing their good luck or lamenting the lack of it. Content creators of gacha games even do their draws live on stream, where they spend copious amounts of money to obtain the characters and items they want. However, most people recognize the steep prices of the in-game currency, so various methods are used to get players to spend money, as well as “convert non-payers to payers” (Wu).
For example, there are often discounted beginner packs and special packs that provide paid in-game currency at very cheap rates, or provide a guaranteed rare character/item. Compared to the normally steep prices, these discounts usually convince some players to open up their wallets (Lakić). Furthermore, when buying in-game currency, the more you buy, the cheaper the purchase rate is, and this encourages buying in-game currency in bulk (Lakić). Along with paid packs, there is also paid gacha, where essentially, if the player has in-game currency paid for using real money, they can draw on special gacha that free in-game currency can’t (Koeder). These special gachas usually have guaranteed rare characters/items, come with a special bonus item, or allow draws at a discounted rate. The examples above all get players used to spending money, to lure them out of the free to play mindset.
As mentioned before, a player must be invested in a game and its characters for them to spend money to draw gacha; that’s why there are also methods to ensure that players stay invested. An obvious one is the “monthly pass” system, where players pay a small monthly fee to obtain in-game currency and other items. The drawback? The rewards aren’t given all at once. Players need to login to the game daily to get them. Therefore, the players have to play every day to get their money’s worth, all while the pass also serves as a source of passive income. Another method that keeps players invested in the game is the “battle pass,” with both paid and non-paid versions, in which over a certain length of time, players complete repeating daily or weekly quests to progress the pass and gain rewards.
Finally, what I believe to be one of the most important factors of successful gacha games, besides the appeal of the story and characters, is the act of making those characters limited, especially the strongest ones. A research paper shows that 53.8% of participants in a study drew the gacha because the offered characters/items were limited (Lakić). Players don’t like the feeling of missing out, or not being able to get the complete experience, so if something is limited, they would feel an urgency to obtain it. This urgency is significant because without it, players can save up enough free in-game currency to guarantee the character they want given enough time. By ensuring items are limited in the game, the player will feel more pressured to draw the gacha and in turn, purchase in-game currency, before they run out of time (Rentia).
The Science
If you ask anyone playing a gacha game whether or not gacha counts as gambling, what would they say? I know I personally have made one too many jokes that it’s just glorified gambling. Surprisingly, though, gacha games currently have not been identified as gambling in most countries due to several reasons, including the crucial fact that real money is not being won and that gambling is not the main gameplay of the games (Koeder).
However, it is undeniable that there is a gambling aspect to gacha, and gacha games very much rely on this to earn money. Specifically, it is similar psychologically, as the randomness of the gacha triggers the same dopamine hit when a person is gambling (Koeder). The elaborate visuals and sounds that play when drawing gacha also lend to the desire to draw more and experience the dopamine hit of obtaining a rare character, similar to the eye-catching appearance and noises of gambling machines in a casino (Koeder).
Yet, despite the similarities, there are also significant differences. The main reason why people gamble is for the rush, where they can experience a strong dose of dopamine from getting near wins and wins. As such, gamblers play to “enter a psychosomatic zone through which they can escape from the anxieties and disappointments of everyday life” (Woods). This contrasts with gacha games, where players experience the most dopamine when they actually obtain the character they desire, especially if they used only a few gacha draws to do so (Rentia).
Also, interviews with players have shown that they also feel happy just by having the character/item. Kenzo, a student player interviewed for a paper expresses his opinion regarding collectibles from gacha games: “You can always just go and Google the outfit and see the character online, but… It just doesn’t feel the same way as actually owning the outfit and the character” (Woods). In order to explain this phenomenon, one research paper coined the term “gambling-like” (Woods). This is because media like gacha games can cause “obsessive behaviours to be accessed, nurtured and rationalised, which in turn can lead to… gambling-like outcomes” that aren’t as problematic as gambling (Woods). Therefore, a conclusion can be drawn that players spend money and draw gacha “in search of an emotional payoff that satisfies their need for social interaction and self-realisation” (Woods).
Sometimes, it’s hard to believe just how successful gacha games can be. For reference, Triple-A games (high-budget, high-quality, one-time purchase games with no microtransactions) currently cost about $60 dollars per game, while some gacha games can siphon so much more out of its players over the course of time, with the biggest ones earning millions of dollars every month consistently. I think we all know that it only goes to show that gacha games will continue to stay for a long time.
Works Cited
Koeder, M. J., Tanaka, E., & Mitomo, H. (2018). “Lootboxes” in digital games-A gamble with consumers in need of regulation? An evaluation based on learnings from Japan. Econstor. http://hdl.handle.net/10419/190385.
Lakić, N., Bernik, A., & Čep, A. (2023). Addiction and Spending in Gacha Games. Information 14, no. 7: 399. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14070399
Rentia, G.-G., & Karaseva, A. (2022). What Aspects of Gacha Games Keep the Players Engaged? (Dissertation). DiVA. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-475987
Woods, O. (2024). The affective embeddings of gacha games: Aesthetic assemblages and the mediated expression of the self. New Media & Society, 26(2), 823–838. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211067756
Wu, J., & Singh, D. (2023). Implementing Stochastic Products Selling in Mobile Games: Is Gacha Just Gambling?. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 24(4), 320–337. http://www.jecr.org/node/695
Image Citations
(In order from top to bottom)
https://www.digitbin.com/what-are-gacha-games-why-popular/
(Taken by myself)
https://twitter.com/granblue_en/status/1605867649430192128
https://tenor.com/view/genshin-wish-5star-gif-19762608
https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/1ag81nb/sensor_tower_monthly_revenue_report_jan_2024/
