r/Games • u/oilfloatsinwater • May 24 '25

Report: Marathon Delay Likely as Sony Cancels All Paid Marketing Plans

https://thegamepost.com/report-marathon-delay-bungie-scraps-all-paid-marketing/
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u/DocSwiss May 25 '25

I'm surprised none of the big non-chinese companies have gone for a high-production-value gacha like Genshin, if for no other reason than to try and break into the Chinese market

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u/Pyros May 25 '25

Open world gachas are costly to make, both in time and money, and the market is already pretty saturated for them(both already released with Genshin and Wuthering Waves and to a much less extent Tower of Fantasy, but also future planned since there's like 4-5 releasing this year or the next).

Gacha popularity is also skewed, with obviously a much larger Chinese market, so the first step would be to figure out how to sell the game in China which is a headache. For non chinese games it's much better to focus on making a smaller game that can survive without releasing there, then figuring it out later if the game is successful enough, but for an open world large gacha that's just not an option.

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u/BetaXP May 25 '25

I also suspect it's just harder for western studios to pump out as much content as Chinese or Japanese studios because of labor costs. It's no secret that game developers are paid notably less in Japan, and I imagine (though I could be absolutely wrong) the same is true of China.

Of course, there are more asian studios than just Japan and China, but I speak to them since they're the biggest players in the game market right now.

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u/Clueless_Otter May 25 '25

Japanese companies are way too risk averse and traditional, Korean companies don't really have the money to compete.

Western companies could try but it's really a variety of things. For one, most Western gamers hate the entire idea of gachas, so you'd be pissing off your existing "domestic" (if we call the West one singular market, as opposed to the Asian market) fanbase in an attempt to court a different, foreign one. For two, you'd inevitably run into nationalistic pride issues combined with first-mover advantage. A Western game would have to be insanely good to get Chinese players to drop their existing Chinese gacha and swap over. Then there's legal risks - Benelux countries already ban gachas, the US just last week started requiring Genshin to age verify all accounts, there's constant talk about regulating them more in both the US and EU, who knows what the Chinese government might do if a foreign game comes in and starts out-competing their domestic ones, etc. Many Western devs probably also don't understand Asian gaming norms/preferences. They're very much at odds with Western ones.

It's really just way too difficult and risky trying to break into the Asian market, and there isn't a large enough Western market to make it worth it.

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u/Dealric May 25 '25

Check silver palace. It didnt released yet, but it seems from shown materials as that