Sonic Rumble Mobile Game Won't Use Gacha As "Such Mechanics Tend To Be Shunned Overseas"

Yeah I don’t think it would work for its game type which is a party royal type deal, I much prefer a battle pass for cosmetic and whatnot.

Unfortunately?

Huh… well I guess.

News to me that gacha are shunned in the west, but hey, they can go right on thinking that.

“In the Japanese and Asian markets, it’s common to have to spend tens of thousands of yen [in a game] until you draw a rare character and finally get to move on," This is probably the best thing Iizuka has ever said, he makes how pathetic this really is sound abundantly clear whether he intended to or not.

It’s rare to hear a developer be so candid about monetisation tactics. Or at least, it feels like it.

Does anyone else agree with me that this art style should be the new one for Sonic going forward? I've never liked the post-1998 artwork for the franchise, but Sonic Rumble's visual presentation is a massive step in the right direct.

The best compromise is to have gatcha mechanics for cosmetic unlocks only. That way you don't have to enter the "pay-to-win" dynamic, while still maintaining a healthy level of "Pay-to-look-cool-and-feel-superior-to-players-using-the-base-skin" dynamics.

@BLAZINOAH .... No. Absolutely not.

Common Iizuka W

Suddenly, I have interest in this game.

How ever did we go from widespread piracy to ridiculous in-game transactions in the first place? 🤨

They're shunned in Japan too. And everywhere. Gacha mechanics are an aberration and need heavy regulation.

Yeah there's no pay to win microtransactions and addictive predatory game design over here...

I'm not sure what I'm hoping for with this game. I guess I hope I can come back to it from time to time.

Hey everyone. This is literally an example of the playerbase's voices being heard by the developers, affecting the inclusion of predatory business practices in games. Don't ever feel like it's hopeless to speak out!

Why does these mobile Sonic games looks better than Sonic Superstars?

I'm glad they picked up on that haha
In Granblue Fantasy, it can cost like 95,500 yen to guarantee you get the character you want. That's currently over 650 USD.
Which is genuinely insane. In fairness to GBF, you can get pick tickets for 3150 yen every so often (think more like 20 bucks), but they don't include limited or seasonal characters. Except for once a year when you can get an "anniversary ticket."

And the whales pay it. I have a friend who's purchased a couple "sparks" (the full 95,500), to my great chagrin.

I don't think most gacha games are quite as hilariously overpriced, but I wouldn't really know. They're all glorified PNG gambling with the veneer of a (sometimes actually fun) game.

We've sure come a long way from horse armor, that's for sure.

Anyway, glad they've recognized the West's aversion to paying stupid money for nothing.

I don't understand the tone of this article, like it's a chore to even talk about this game. I didn't find it exciting but it looked okay.

I don't really have an issue with gacha mechanics in free games but they shouldn't be part of paid for content Eg games that you have to buy. They are forms of gambling just without monetary reward so do need regulation et al. But back to the first point if it's a free game, I don't see the issue as long as regulation is attached to protect vulnerable, under age etc whatever the countries stance is on gambling.

Why do the characters jump like that?? That’s not how Sonic jumps

Good news. The more people reject this model the better.

a surprising W for Sega here

Friendly reminder that Overwatch changed the lootboxes for a season pass, and it was so awful that people missed lootboxes. A Season pass means that they most likely will put the best skins in the in-game shop for 15-20 bucks.

Meanwhile while I scroll over “popular games” in my App Store I see mostly Chinese and Japanese gacha haha.

A vocal minority loves to whine about them every chance they get, but end of the day they pull in the numbers that tells a different story.

Very disappointed this isn't coming to consoles especially with the amount of characters that are in the game 'cause I would love to be able to play as Cream, Rogue, Blaze, Charmy Bee, Espio, Vector, Silver etc and have wanted them to release a game with a big character selection like this 'cause Sonic has so many characters we don't often get the chance to play as.

'Hello Kitty Island Adventure' is coming to consoles next year though so hopefully this will too.

sonic uprising baby theyre on the up and up how long until they crash again i dunno but right now things are looking bright

The "Ring Shop" and the existence of premium currency regardless tells me this game will likely be extremely grindy like Sonic Dash.

The interview continued:

"So rather then use the Japanese model that relays on mechanics like this, you're just going to release a Utopian game where everything is free and we all get a pony!??"

-"What? No, obviously not. We're just going to follow the ***** American model were you get bombarded by ads and everything is behind a pay gate"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I should have seen that coming. Could you maybe give me a few more details on the monetization you will be using?".

-"It will take me 7 hours to answer that question. Would you like me to answer it now for $4.99?"

" ... "

Another game we will be hearing about shutting down within a year.

Wish there were more companies like Playdigious that port full games over to mobile instead of these expiration date guaranteed f2p cash grabs.

I find that pretty strange to say considering gacha games do have a sizable audience in the west. It's mostly mainstream core gamers who suffered through the bullsh!t of Star Wars Battlefront and other companies like activision and EA abusing the hell out of it in their mainstream releases.
No pity, low rates, treating the game like a job just to get one character if you refuse to pay, all in an upfront cost game. it was a bloody mess...
But speaking of those gamers, they also don't really play the games they complain about, and that's kind of disingenuous when it comes to critique of these games existing.

Not to say that they should be in this game though as I imaging making it gacha could make the game unfair. Gacha is best as an improvisational strategy genre after all so it just doesn't fit with a multiplayer racing game.

@BLAZINOAH I agree. This more plastic-looking art style reminds me of Sonic Heroes.

@BLAZINOAH It's not the standard. In fact, the working title was "toys party"

Quite frankly, if this would be the artstyle moving forward, it looks terrible. As a spin-off game, it's whatever.

I'm not a big fan of gacha mechanics myself, but at least you are guaranteed something. It may not be what you are pulling for, but it is at least something. If you ask me, it's a far cry from actual gambling (such as slot machines and the lottery), where you can actually lose money and not get anything back at all.

About the only game I do the gacha on is Genshin Impact, and on that, I try to be as F2P as possible. I save up my Primogems from events and normal gameplay, but I do spend real money on the Blessing of the Welkin Moon (which gives you 90 Primogems a day for 30 days), and I will purchase the premium tier of the Battle Pass once I max it out. But beyond that, I try to spend as little real life money as possible in-game.

@AstroTheGamosian

I mean that's the core social divide he's talking about when he say that they don't go over well in the West.

On the buyer side In Japan, and most of SEA, you spend 300 yen on a gacha and your mindset is "I'll get what I get and like it". You don't spend the money unless you are okay with the worst prize, because you understand how math works and how that's what you are likely going to get. Anything above that is a bonus.

On the seller side, most of the time games use limited edition or exclusive items so they have no real "value" outside the game, but when the game includes prizes with objective costs, like gacha games at liquor stores, the price of the draw is generally the same as (or even less then) the prize of the worst prize. It's a marketing ploy to sell more, not improve profit.

Move over to the West, and the mindset is "I won the birth lottery and deserve everything" coupled with a healthy dose of being told every single day that if you don't have all the best material goods you are a worthless sub human monster that has no right to exist, and it doesn't really land as well. People play them not just because they want the SSR, but because they EXPECT it, because math doesn't apply to the main character in a story. So when they don't get it they get really really angry.

On the seller side, profit is king and your customers can die in a ditch for all you care. Pulls are like 20 times the price of the lowest cost item and it's only if you get a top tier prize that you get anything close to a good deal. This is true in games with a NA distributor, as NA publishers ALWAYS charge way, way more for each pull then even the same game where the publisher is native to SEA.

So it's like ... they would hate them even if it was the same, but they are not the same, they are worse.

Not surprising they don't go over well.

@HeadPirate I think you might have a slightly different gacha in mind. as far as games are concerned, gacha rates are more controlled, and there are methods in a lot of popular gacha games these days where you can get into the mindset of expecting what you want assuming you're good at saving gems til a hard limit

@Samalik

You're not wrong, but the psychology is largely the same. Even without a hard limit, you know the odds. So if you go into a game that costs $1 where your chance of getting the SSR is 1:100 and think "This SSR will cost me $100 68% of the time, more then that but less then $200 27% of the time and over $300 0.03% of the time" and are fine with that ... you're all good.

The same way if you go into one with a hard cap thinking "This will cost me (hard cap)"

The problem is that most people don't. Most people go in thinking they are special and math doesn't apply to them so they will get it long before that. So they get mad when math does, in fact, apply. Or, maybe they just don't understand probably at even a basic level.

I think we're both basically saying the same thing, there is nothing wrong with the mechanic, you just have to go in with the right mindset and act responsibility.

@HeadPirate Which is why I try to be as F2P in Genshin Impact as possible. I don't want to blow my wallet trying to get all the characters and weapons. I say that as a Westerner. Again, I really only do the Blessing of the Welkin Moon and the premium tier of the Battle Pass; I couldn't tell you the last time I spent real money on Genesis Crystals (and even then, the last time I did was to buy the new clothing for one of the characters).

And at least Genshin has a pity system where you are guaranteed a 5-Star character or weapon after a set number of pulls (I've heard it was usually between 60-90, although I've had it to where it was within 10-20 pulls of the last one; I got lucky). You may lose the 50/50 on a banner the first time you pull a 5-Star, but if you pull another, you will be guaranteed the character or weapon you are pulling for on that banner.

@HeadPirate I don't really consider the odds because I always aim for that 100% guarantee of getting the item i want, assuming we're talking about a gacha game with a modern mindset. If I get it early, great. If I don't, I know what I signed up for and can't get mad because I always aim for using pity/fail points to "buy" the character

Responsible spending is definitely important, but so is actually playing a game you actually like, much to the point you can stockpile gems to haggle the price of the item to $0. and that's assuming you like it enough to log in every day

@AstroTheGamosian

You bring up another big difference between Western and Eastern FTP ... the amount of free currency you get. Chinese and Korean games give enough that you generally can get by, and Japanese games just hand the stuff out like crazy.

In what is likely the most important mobile game ever made, Hello Kitty World 2, I have like $200 of currency at any given point. Atelier Resleriana gives so much free currency on top of free pulls that you'll have no problem getting most SSRs ... paid gems are only really there for people who want to choose. I worked out the amount of money you would need to spend to get all the gems and free pulls that game gave out sense launch and it's like 150000 Yen, which is about $1000. But at the same time, before a resent change you needed to spend $60 to guarantee you get a character you wanted (after the change it's the FAR more reasonable ... $45). And I'm fine with that. Crazy rich people who can toss around $60 like it's nothing paying for the development of a game I get to play for free? Yes please.

I think a lot of people are missing out on some great games you never have to pay a dime to play because they judge all mobile games based on their experiences with the worst ones out there.

@HeadPirate I totally get that last paragraph. I personally like Genshin Impact for its world-building and story (for me, the most important aspects of any video game, even more than the gameplay itself), but I can't convince my friends to play it because they don't like the gacha component. To me, Genshin is a fantasy adventure RPG game first and a gacha game second.