The gacha mechanism is undoubtedly one of the most mainstream business models in the current mobile game market, and there are data showing that 66% of the 100 mobile games with the highest sales volume in the US market have a gacha mechanism, and 45% of the games have 5 or more gacha types, which is quite popular in the Japanese market, and this number has risen to 92% and 54% respectively.
So why is the gacha mechanism developing so rapidly? In today's games, what form of gacha/draw card has appeared? Recently, mobile data analytics firm GameRefinery took stock of several of the most popular gacha mechanics in the mobile gaming market in 2021.
Here are the details of GameLook compiling GameRefinery:
The mechanics of the game of gacha and how it works
Gacha derives its name from a Japanese toy seller, gachapon, where players throw a coin into a gacha machine and receive a random player or item. The first gacha machine was built in the early 1960s, and in 2010, KONAMI incorporated a similar mechanic into its free card battle mobile game Dragon Collection.
The gameplay is simple, with players battling powerful enemies and other players to complete missions, during which they can earn or collect monster cards from random treasure chests. This is the game's Gacha mechanic, where players can open a limited number of chests while completing a mission, or take out a portion of their cash to open them, and receive random rewards in the process.
This is also the main premise of the game's gacha mechanics: the player activates the gacha (usually by pulling on a lever, rolling the dice, or spinning the roulette wheel) to receive random rewards. In general, the content of the reward has a different rarity, mainly determined by the drop rate, which will also motivate the player to keep activating the gacha until they get the reward they want.
How much money players need to invest in these gachas will vary mainly from game to game. Some gachas can be launched directly with real money, while others require internal currency that the player obtains using the game or purchases.
Since Dragon Rider itself is a card game with a deck-building strategy in the gameplay level, the gacha mechanic is a great fit for the game, and the game is also a good fit for KONAMI. According to the data, Dragon Rider already had 6 million players in 2012 and helped KONAMI achieve a net profit growth of nearly 80% in the same year.
Since then, the entire gaming market has begun to change. As traditional console game makers become more interested in mobile games, they also often try games with gacha mechanics. Nowadays, even big IP games such as Fire Emblem: Heroes, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, Pokémon Masters EX, or Dragon Quest Tact are inevitable, but the interesting thing about these games is that they use different gacha mechanics.
Different types of gacha mechanics in mobile games
After Dragon Rider, the gacha mechanic has made significant progress thanks to the addition of their own unique mechanics to the gacha mechanic by different developers. One of the most popular Gacha mechanics is the "Gacha Shop" (card pool), where the items offered change over a specific period of time, and there are many other innovations that use the Gacha mechanic.
Here are some of the most popular gacha mechanics in mobile games:
1) Box Gacha
The prize pool for box gachas is very limited, so players don't have to worry about receiving duplicate rewards. Whenever a player earns a reward, it is permanently removed from the Gacha prize pool, increasing the player's chances of getting a rare prize.
The Box Gacha is a popular and selective Gacha mechanic for developers because it is more transparent to the player, and in addition to a clearer understanding of the rewards that can be obtained, in some cases the player can also see the probability of falling specific items.
Call of Duty Mobile uses chest gacha in its limited-time lucky draw, where players spend COD points for a chance to win rare and unique skins. Similarly, a Japanese music game "Hypnosis Microphone" uses box gacha to carry out activities. For example, during the March 2021 White Day event, players can earn the in-game special currency "Ribbons" to buy tickets to the event required for the box gacha.
A lucky draw in the Call of Duty mobile game
2) Double Six Gacha (Sugoroku Gacha)
Inspired by the traditional Japanese table game of the same name, Sugoroku Gacha, in which players roll dice on a tabletop with a gacha reward, this gacha mechanic is also commonly used in mini board games.
In the asymmetric mobile game The Fifth Personality, a similar mechanic can be found, where players earn dice by winning matches, thus advancing on the board designed in the game, and along the way they will be able to obtain new skins, characters, and items.
3) Step-up Gacha
This is one of the most common gacha mechanics in Japanese mobile games, where players go through multiple gacha stages, with each new gacha spin offering more rewards.
In general, as the player's stages gradually level up, the cost of triggering gachas will become higher and higher. Of course, depending on how the Upgrade Gacha is implemented, players may receive guaranteed rewards on a specific real machine, such as a specific character or item on the third or fifth launch, which is similarly designed in Final Fantasy Brave exvus: Phantom War in collaboration with P5. In addition, some developers will design some free-to-turn mechanisms to stimulate people.
Grim Reaper: An ascending gacha in Brave Souls
Typical examples of ascending gacha can be found in Grim Reaper: Brave Souls, where players can get powerful characters in certain windows for a limited time. Similarly, Dragon Ball adaptation of dragon ball legends used an upgraded gacha in an event launched in November 2021, where players are three times more likely to draw a special character at this node, and each time the player opens the gacha, they also receive a special currency as a reward.
Ascending Gacha in Dragon Ball Legends
4) Milestone/pity gacha
This type of gacha mechanic, as the name suggests, once a player opens a certain number of gachas to reach a milestone, it triggers a guarantee mechanism and the player is sure to receive a reward. In western markets, many games that use this gacha mechanism are generally transparent, and the game specifically notes the rarity of the reward, so that players know what rewards they will receive after opening the gacha multiple times. This means that after opening the gacha four times, players can expect to receive a reward for the fifth time.
In the case of Call of Duty Mobile, players will receive a rare gacha reward after opening a certain number of gachas, and there will be a progress bar below the gacha to show how many more gachas the player needs to open to trigger the guaranteed reward. A similar gacha mechanic is used in Protosthesis, and while it doesn't show the progress bar as precisely as Call of Duty Mobile, it does describe the specifics of how this gacha mechanism works.
5) Limited-time and timedGacha
In some games, it is common for gacha mechanics to appear and be accessible to the player only during certain periods of time, or to be locked after a certain time. In a limited-time gacha, a top reward with a lower probability of getting is usually set, and players need to try to get it for a limited amount of time until it disappears.
A time-limited gacha in a hero-collection RPG
6) Joint-pull gacha
Cooperative gacha is a relatively new type of gacha that integrates social elements into the process of opening gacha, and in 2022, we expect to see more similar gacha types. We've encountered this type of cooperative gacha mechanics in Kyoutou Kotoba RPG: Kotodaman and Monster Pinball, owned by the Japanese company XFLAG.
In simple terms, cooperative gacha can be likened to a cooperative mission between players: players can "team up" to open gacha rewards together, and all players involved in gacha can share these rewards. Here, the player creates a "private space" for the gacha, or creates one that allows other players to join the session. Of course, cooperative gacha can still be activated by a single player, but they can only get one kind of reward, so it is best to play with as many people as possible, and with the blessing of social attributes, players can coordinate the content of the reward with each other to get the best possible result.
7) Bingo Board gacha
Basically, bingo board gacha can be thought of as a "bingo game", but when the player clears the line, they don't get a cash reward, but instead get new items, characters, or premium currency in the game.
In "Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross", a bingo chessboard egg such as "Goodbye 2021" was designed, and players will have the opportunity to obtain rare seasonal characters from it.
8) Player's choice gacha
This type of gacha mechanism has been popular in China since the summer of 2021, and its principle is to allow players to choose the rewards such as items/characters/weapons that they have a chance to get, and sometimes, it is the content of the prize pool of their choice.
Some mobile games launched in Chinese mainland, such as "Three Kingdoms Fantasyland" and "Battle Double Pamish", have used such player-selected gacha mechanics, and such gacha mechanisms have appeared in some global products such as PUBG: NEW STATE and Original God.
In Three Kingdoms Fantasyland, players can choose two limited-time main prizes
Players in the new Laughing Pride River can choose their own prize pool
What is the future of gacha?
In 2022, there is a good chance that new types of gacha will appear in the industry, and the reward mechanism of console games seems to be combining with the gacha mechanism in mobile games, such as the "Preview gacha" mechanism that we have not yet found in the mobile game market in the FIFA series.
"Preview Gacha" is essentially a more transparent version of Re-roll gacha, and players will be able to open it again if they are not satisfied with the rewards they have drawn. Of course, the difference we see is that players can see the rewards they want. If a player declines the reward and wants to try again, there is a limit to the amount of time to try, and developers can make a number of different attempts around this mechanism.
Overall, one of the reasons we expect the gacha mechanism to continue to grow in 2022 is because the gacha mechanism is becoming more transparent and the probability is becoming more and more realistic to ensure that it can withstand industry regulation. Kompu gacha, one of the first gacha mechanics, was banned in Japan in June 2011, and lawmakers have since focused on the game's gacha, loot boxes, and other monetization systems.
Because of this, mobile game developers need to ensure that the gacha mechanics in the game are not only enjoyable for players, but also need to be fairer and comply with laws and regulations.
In addition to the more transparent gacha mechanisms, we are also finding more and more gacha mechanisms built on top of social interactions. Social features such as guilds, chats, cooperative missions, and marriage systems have evolved rapidly over the years, so we'd love to see if these features can be integrated with the Gacha mechanism.
With continuous innovation, the mobile game industry has come to where it is today, and we are very much looking forward to the further development of the gacha mechanism in 2022 and the future.
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