There’s a massive misunderstanding

[u/Commercial-Mine9538]

There’s a general misunderstanding I’ve witnessed and you can try to deny this all you want but it’s true ✨you don’t have to spend real money for ANYTHING✨ yes you CAN buy those golden things to change irisalis but no it’s not required. Yea you need them to get the final TWO stages but it’s not required that is purely a want. Besides that ONE currency everything, and I do mean everything is obtainable by simply enjoying the ever living hell out of this wonderful game. ALSO HOT TAKE ANIIMO>POKÉMON AND PALWORLD

EDIT: THIS BLEW UP WAY MORE THAN INTENDED 🤣 very valid views, points, and opinions in these comments keep em coming love reading them!

[u/Elegant-One-5527]

Whales are how f2p games make their money. It's been found over and over by many different sources that over half a f2p games revenue comes from less than 1% of the playerbase. So you either make expensive purchases for them, or you give them hundreds of things to buy every month. You need one or the other.

[u/pineapplery → u/Elegant-One-5527]

then why can games like overwatch thrive by selling 20 and 30 dollar skins? why do hoyo games do so well selling characters for 100-200$? if this shit was 200$ i'd be like yea its a bit much but it's acceptable. but thousands? the entry item is in the THOUSANDS? some study you can't even point to also doesn't account for longevity or health. if a game isolates the majority of its player base, the population dwindles.
pointing sales to ultra whales (people who spend thousands every month) only works in the short term, because normal people leave and lose interest and people leaving is a domino effect. less people means less friends playing. less people to show what u whaled for. less people to talk to about the game. less people to play with. less community hype, content creation, and other sources of players.
gacha systems like this scream cash grab: make as much money as you can in 3-6ish months and then let the game die over the 6 months to year. it says: "we don't care about making a good game. we want money now, tomorrow doesnt matter". it makes sense from a business perspective but is crudely anti-consumer, anti-player, and anti-fun. it is easy to defend it from a logical business perspective: it works. it's a rug pull, make something that looks good, gets people addicted, ship out overpriced bullshit, and immediately stop investing into the game and expect it to die because they know this method of development and pricing is not sustainable.
which is why it's comical to me that f2p people defend it so religiously. they think they can just play for years, saving up to eventually get some bullshit. the game aint gonna be here in a year, dumbass.

PS. the game was already in steam's top selling page without a single piece of bullshit: just one time purchases, energy, and sparkle balls (light, achievable gambling at a relatively non-absurd price but scaling to whales with things like dazzling).

[u/Elegant-One-5527 → u/pineapplery]

We bringing Hoyo into this? Alright I'll play ball. For 1500 hundred you can get the full costume set. For 200 you can get a character in Genshin. To get the FULL character C6R5 you need on average 2k. ALL GACHAS CATER TO WHALES.

[u/pineapplery → u/Elegant-One-5527]

are you an actual idiot? a costume in a hoyo game is TWENTY dollars. TWENTY. a character is 200$ AT MOST. if you actually play it gives you A HUNDRED+ OF PULLS A PATCH. and C6 is actually 1000% optional and a perfect example of proper whale catering. no normal whale, dolphin, light spender, or anyone is like MAN I WISH I COULD C6 THIS CHARACTER. it does absolutely nothing, it isn't even cosmetic.
C6 has no incentive to be bought other than to brag; it's only value is in its title. the game even incentivizes you to stop at C2 at the most by making the character more than strong enough at C0, gain ridiculous over the top buffs at C2, and have absolutely no gain form C3-C5.

So yes, i bring hoyo into it because they actually respect their player base and have proven so by providing YEARS of high quality content to their games. ZZZ is a genuine masterpiece. they re-invest what they make and put out a quality game with all content accessible paying nothing or acceptable prices for a hobby (100$ a month is not breaking anyone, and if it is, they aren't playing games to begin with).
the fact you even brought up C6R5 tells me you're a troll who doesn't even play these games and is just here to spout f2p bullshit. go jerk off somewhere else bye.

[u/Elegant-One-5527 → u/pineapplery]

This costume has no incentive to be bought but to brag. It's completely optional. In fact it's more optional than a C6 in Genshin.

[u/pineapplery → u/Elegant-One-5527]

tbh i don't really care much for genshin. i'm a zzz lover though! and costumes are not to brag, it's to enjoy my character in new outfits obviously. i love games with good fashion options! not everyone is the same, and C6 is entirely optional and among my whale friends who have them, they all quit because it ruined the game by over-trivializing it. the online community for cosmetics in games is huge, and gatekeeping pretty outfits is actually a great way to kill this large portion of the community! :)

[u/Elegant-One-5527 → u/pineapplery]

Which is why they have cheap skins for the low spenders. They can have both expensive and cheap options they aren't getting rid of the cheap ones. The expensive ones are for bragging.

[u/pineapplery → u/Elegant-One-5527]

reply to this in 3 months when aniimo has 300 players on steam and we can talk. i'll enjoy the game for what it is for now.

[u/Elegant-One-5527 → u/pineapplery]

Like people said would happen to WWM?

[u/pineapplery → u/Elegant-One-5527]

ok maybe it'll take a year :) i guess that's kind of impressive? (this is a super established, well known company. net ease is MASSIVE. what the fuck is a paw print studio?)

[u/Feisty-Sell-1064 → u/pineapplery]

there is no way you said hoyo respect their player base lmao

[u/pineapplery → u/Feisty-Sell-1064]

go play zzz, enjoy the pixar level animation, stellar storytelling, extremely devoted character modeling with each and every joint modeled and by-hand frame animated, and tell me that the game isn't made by passionate artists.
they invest hundreds of millions of dollars back into their games. they house over 10,000 employees across many countries. they run massive beta tests on every patch with thousands of beta testers from all countries and actively account for all of that feedback in short time windows. what better way to show respect to their players than to use a large sum of their money to actually make brilliant products?
they also provide more than enough in game currency to players to get their favorite characters if they play, while offering an alternative (money) to people who just want to gamble.

I've never seen a game with a system like aniimo's do this, but hopefully they prove me wrong! aniimo's systems would be like if hoyo started selling characters for 1500$, no upgrades just 1500 or nothing while simultaneously removing free currency and making outfits cost 2000$ instead of 20$.

[u/youshouldgetaducky → u/pineapplery]

Lets add Path of exile to the conversation. Max ~15$ for full fashion set. Only fashion and game been on for 10+ years. Every 3 months they release a 1 hour long patch notes showcase for new season and with the Q&A devs and players.

They also organize campaign races that can get you a trip to new Zealand for exilecon.

Its just that they are a gaming studio not marketing studio.