A US agency has raised serious allegations against the Gacha game Genshin Impact and is demanding a hefty fine.
What are the allegations? As announced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the creators of Genshin Impact have agreed to a payment of $20 million (approximately €19.5 million) (via ftc.gov). The FTC is the trade commission of the USA.
Additionally, the developers have agreed to exclude children under 16 years from in-game purchases without parental consent. The FTC states: ‘The company violated a law protecting children’s privacy and deceived children and other users about the actual costs of transactions in the game and the chances of winning rare prizes.’
The allegation of violating children’s privacy stems from the collection of personal data. HoYoverse was aware that children under 13 years old were using their service and still collected data without parental consent.
Furthermore, the FTC criticizes the Gacha mechanics of the game: ‘Genshin Impact deceived children, teenagers, and other players into spending hundreds of dollars on prizes for which they had little chance of winning.’
This is set to change in the future if a federal judge agrees to the FTC’s requested orders.
The FTC’s orders demand:
- The payment of a fine of $20 million
- Prohibition on allowing children under 16 to purchase loot boxes in their video games without explicit parental consent;
- Prohibition on selling loot boxes with virtual currency without giving consumers the option to buy them directly with real money;
- Prohibition on false representation of win probabilities, prizes, and features of loot boxes;
- Obligation to disclose the odds of loot boxes and exchange rates for multi-level virtual currencies;
- Obligation to delete all personal data previously collected from children under 13 years, unless they obtain parental consent to retain this data; and
- Obligation to comply with COPPA, including notification and consent requirements.
*COPPA = Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
What is the problem with Genshin Impact? Genshin Impact is a so-called Gacha game. This means you get new characters and weapons by trying to pull them from a type of gambling machine. In Genshin Impact, the ‘Gacha machines’ are called banners.
Players of the action RPG often aim for the rare 5-star characters. However, the chance of getting such a character is very low. With a lot of bad luck, you may have to pull up to 180 times to get the desired character.
A pull in Genshin Impact requires ‘Fate,’ which you can obtain with the premium currency ‘Primogem,’ which in turn can only be exchanged for Creation Crystals, which can only be purchased for real money in the shop.
The U.S. Department of Justice believes, according to the FTC, that the system of Genshin Impact is confusing, especially for children and teenagers. This obscures the amount of money players spend to obtain a 5-star character. You can learn more about the Gacha system of Genshin Impact here: Genshin Impact: FAQ on the Gacha system – How Pay2Win is it really?
