2023
Blom, Joleen
The Genshin Impact Media Mix: Free-to-Play Monetization from East Asia Journal Article
In: Mechademia, vol. 16, iss. 1, pp. 144-166, 2023, ISSN: 1934-2489.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Characters, Free-to-play games, In-app purchases, Media mix, Monetization model
@article{Blom2023b,
title = {The Genshin Impact Media Mix: Free-to-Play Monetization from East Asia},
author = {Joleen Blom },
url = {https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/23/article/910024},
issn = {1934-2489},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-23},
urldate = {2023-10-23},
journal = {Mechademia},
volume = {16},
issue = {1},
pages = {144-166},
abstract = {In the first quarter of 2022, the free-to-play game Genshin Impact (2020) surpassed a revenue of $3 billion dollars (US) from their mobile phone players.1 Genshin Impact is currently one of the highest-grossing games on the market since its official launch on September 28, 2020. The above revenue number is from sales through the App Store and Google Play alone, and it does not include the game’s PC and PlayStation versions. The game also has a significant global impact; while it makes the most sales in the Chinese market (ranking number one in revenue) and Japan (ranking number two), the United States ranks number three.2 In 2021, the game’s developer, HoYoverse, generated almost $1.5 billion USD in revenue from in-app purchases, a number that was doubled compared to the prior year, with Genshin Impact as their top-grossing mobile game.3
Genshin Impact can only be described in a multitude of adjectives. It is a cross-platform, free-to-play, open-world, role-playing game with anime-inspired characters. Players can roam the virtual world of Teyvat doing just about whatever they want, ranging from completing the main quest, playing through story quests, traversing dungeons, building a home base, fishing, fighting monsters, or just wandering through the world’s villages and cities. The game bears a resemblance to Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs); before its official release, the game was considered by entertainment website Polygon to be a clone of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017),4 and even reported by the game news website Kotaku to be similar to the Tales JRPG series.5 The most lucrative element of this game is its characters. The game operates on a monetization model in which the game itself is free to play but offers in-app purchases. These purchases predominantly take the form of game characters that players can attempt to obtain through a gacha mechanic, where players make small purchases to roll for a desired character, which they may or may not obtain.
In light of this special issue of Mechademia: Second Arc’s focus on new approaches and analyses of the media mix, this article aims to shed light on [End Page 144] the monetization model of free-to-play games within a media mix practice with characters at its center. As Marc Steinberg explains, characters function in media mix practices as the devices that connect audio-visual media (such as manga, anime, and video games) and objects while simultaneously forcing the proliferation of these media and objects.6 Genshin Impact both follows and diverges from this aspect, because, although the Genshin Impact characters proliferate across different media such as an online manga, an upcoming anime, and even social media like YouTube and Twitter, the free-to-play game is the primary medium to which all these media are directed. As this article shows, the characters are used as a device for the game’s monetization strategy to connect its different sources of income into a single game service instead of an entire media mix.},
keywords = {Characters, Free-to-play games, In-app purchases, Media mix, Monetization model},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In the first quarter of 2022, the free-to-play game Genshin Impact (2020) surpassed a revenue of $3 billion dollars (US) from their mobile phone players.1 Genshin Impact is currently one of the highest-grossing games on the market since its official launch on September 28, 2020. The above revenue number is from sales through the App Store and Google Play alone, and it does not include the game’s PC and PlayStation versions. The game also has a significant global impact; while it makes the most sales in the Chinese market (ranking number one in revenue) and Japan (ranking number two), the United States ranks number three.2 In 2021, the game’s developer, HoYoverse, generated almost $1.5 billion USD in revenue from in-app purchases, a number that was doubled compared to the prior year, with Genshin Impact as their top-grossing mobile game.3
Genshin Impact can only be described in a multitude of adjectives. It is a cross-platform, free-to-play, open-world, role-playing game with anime-inspired characters. Players can roam the virtual world of Teyvat doing just about whatever they want, ranging from completing the main quest, playing through story quests, traversing dungeons, building a home base, fishing, fighting monsters, or just wandering through the world’s villages and cities. The game bears a resemblance to Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs); before its official release, the game was considered by entertainment website Polygon to be a clone of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017),4 and even reported by the game news website Kotaku to be similar to the Tales JRPG series.5 The most lucrative element of this game is its characters. The game operates on a monetization model in which the game itself is free to play but offers in-app purchases. These purchases predominantly take the form of game characters that players can attempt to obtain through a gacha mechanic, where players make small purchases to roll for a desired character, which they may or may not obtain.
In light of this special issue of Mechademia: Second Arc’s focus on new approaches and analyses of the media mix, this article aims to shed light on [End Page 144] the monetization model of free-to-play games within a media mix practice with characters at its center. As Marc Steinberg explains, characters function in media mix practices as the devices that connect audio-visual media (such as manga, anime, and video games) and objects while simultaneously forcing the proliferation of these media and objects.6 Genshin Impact both follows and diverges from this aspect, because, although the Genshin Impact characters proliferate across different media such as an online manga, an upcoming anime, and even social media like YouTube and Twitter, the free-to-play game is the primary medium to which all these media are directed. As this article shows, the characters are used as a device for the game’s monetization strategy to connect its different sources of income into a single game service instead of an entire media mix.
Genshin Impact can only be described in a multitude of adjectives. It is a cross-platform, free-to-play, open-world, role-playing game with anime-inspired characters. Players can roam the virtual world of Teyvat doing just about whatever they want, ranging from completing the main quest, playing through story quests, traversing dungeons, building a home base, fishing, fighting monsters, or just wandering through the world’s villages and cities. The game bears a resemblance to Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs); before its official release, the game was considered by entertainment website Polygon to be a clone of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017),4 and even reported by the game news website Kotaku to be similar to the Tales JRPG series.5 The most lucrative element of this game is its characters. The game operates on a monetization model in which the game itself is free to play but offers in-app purchases. These purchases predominantly take the form of game characters that players can attempt to obtain through a gacha mechanic, where players make small purchases to roll for a desired character, which they may or may not obtain.
In light of this special issue of Mechademia: Second Arc’s focus on new approaches and analyses of the media mix, this article aims to shed light on [End Page 144] the monetization model of free-to-play games within a media mix practice with characters at its center. As Marc Steinberg explains, characters function in media mix practices as the devices that connect audio-visual media (such as manga, anime, and video games) and objects while simultaneously forcing the proliferation of these media and objects.6 Genshin Impact both follows and diverges from this aspect, because, although the Genshin Impact characters proliferate across different media such as an online manga, an upcoming anime, and even social media like YouTube and Twitter, the free-to-play game is the primary medium to which all these media are directed. As this article shows, the characters are used as a device for the game’s monetization strategy to connect its different sources of income into a single game service instead of an entire media mix.