Genshin Impact is one of the most popular Gacha games in the world. Hoyoverse’s free-to-play action RPG allows players to get the chance (“hope”) of rare characters of various powers using a cryptocurrency called Primogems. It’s a microtransaction system that has proven controversial, but for developers it’s a money spinner and has generated billions of dollars in revenue over the years.
In most games of this type, players will withhold the amount they have to spend to pull a character in the end. But now Hoyoverse has updated the Genshin Impact and made it clear that it needs to be done just that, and spent on the front and center.
The Genshin Impact Shop tells the player how many pulls they have for each purchase (you can buy your preferences directly by viewing the conversion rate directly), and you should spend to ensure that you pull characters from $1.98 to $4,750. This number is based on the base price of the pull (no bonus) and will hit Max Pull to guarantee a character (180 pull).
So, the posted numbers assume the best possible price if you don’t intentionally buy a high value (more expensive) bundle, but you can spend nearly $500 just by pulling one character in Genshin Impact.
Players responded to a mix of distrust and positivity about transparency.
“Everything is strange….transparent,” Ladytl Theon Press said. “You make it clear, every time you stare at you, you’ll be pulled by $50 for $100 (a whale may not even care about “knowing” mathematics).
“I’m not positively positive,” Huilyam said. “The only people who have helped by obscuring costs are those who want to use people and make it easier for addicted people to justify spending money.”
“I think it’s difficult to justify spending with a terrible, visible conversion rate,” added Mtboomerang. “I think the biggest problem with addicts is that they calculate from following their emotions. The conversion rate is visible now, so their logic closes their emotions before they deepen into emotional deep by to come up with a reason.”
“A good change that should be standardized for all gachas and other similar games with a gambling/lootbox type mechanism,” says Mikethebest1.
Given that some players know how much it costs to get through the Gacha system, they are asking Genshin for Hoyoverse so they can purchase Impact players directly.
“I hope they’ll make damn characters go crazy,” Yusharo said. “Horse Armor is working on me. If I knew I would get what I want every time, I would pay Freakton for these games.
“Instead, a large portion of their revenue comes from a small portion of players who use their gambling trends to prey on people like vultures, and I hate that.
So why did Hoyoverse add this layer of transparency to Genshin Implice? This is because they lost their trial against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in January, which banned the sale of booty boxes.
If you’re wondering why, back in January, Hoyoverse reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), resulting in greater transparency regarding parental consent and its in-game cryptocurrency practices. The result is kicking in.
As part of this, US law requires US law to verify US player accounts. This is because as part of the FTC’s payment order, the sale of Genshin was prohibited to children under the age of 16 without Genshin’s consent.
The age verification process will be deployed to all US players by May 20th. If you do not provide age information by July 18, 2025, you can see your account being suspended, the developer warned. If verification is not completed by July 20, 2026, your Hoyoverse account personal information will be permanently deleted.
Wesley is the UK news editor at Passthecontroller. Find him on @wyp100’s Twitter. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
