September saw some pretty big games launch, but the surprisingly successful free-to-play Genshin Impact took the PlayStation Blog?s Players? Choice award for the month in a ?landslide victory.? Developed by Chinese studio miHoYo, Genshin Impact is a Breath of the Wild-inspired RPG, free-to-play featuring gacha mechanics (effectively gambling, loot boxes, or ?pulls? seen in mobile games to get characters and gear). Released on September 28th, Genshin Impact made it in just under the wire to go up against games like Spellbreak and Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater 1 and 2, which took the second and third place spots on the PS Blog Players? Choice poll.
Additionally, Genshin Impact took just 12 days to generate over $100 million in revenue, the reported range for its development costs. The free-to-play title gets money through currency purchases used for ?Wishes? in game, which randomly grant the player various characters and gear. Higher powered gear and characters can be quite rare through the Wish system, and there?s a hefty amount of luck involved in getting the things you actually want. The Washington Post?s Gene Park wrote about the dangerously addictive gambling mechanics, citing how easy it was to just effectively Wish away $130 in a matter of seconds.
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