2016's biggest mobile game also
uses Gacha methods in order to boost revenues and retention, most notably when it comes to the card collection portion of its gameplay.
Not exact matches
Players can
use crystals to purchase weapons and armor, which can be upgraded and evolved in
gacha game fashion, but the game is pretty generous in just handing out currency as a reward.
Along the way, players can also collect game coins, which they can then
use to win a new, playable character through the game's
gacha prize machine.
Fire Emblem is the natural choice for the
gacha - style of gameplay, as there are countless heroes to
use from 15 titles throughout all of Nintendo's consoles.
Also on the docket will be Amir Dori, Senior Game Designer at Matific, at the session Kids, Technology & the Future of Education where Amir will talk about
using games to make education fun and Ohad Barzilay, Producer and Game Designer at Sidekick Games, will talk about what works in Asian mobile games for the west (like
Gacha mechanics) in Asian vs. Western Games: Successful Gameplay and Design Elements That Makes No Sense.
When CS: GO's skins released, they
used a traditional
gacha box system, with one critical addition to the formula: the Steam Marketplace.
All these currencies gained from playing are
used to purchase better players either from store, auction house or
gacha (tokens).
Elsewhere,
Gacha systems are a form of positive re-enforcement that have proven controversial in the past, but in modern Western games a less random version of the mechanic is often
used where potential rewards and probabilities are more transparent.
The game's
Gacha elements sees players
use either in - game or real currency to take a game of chance in between matches, resulting in prizes ranging from temporary skills buffs to more powerful cues and cosmetic upgrades.
Finally, this game feels like it completes a list of experiments Nintendo has tried on mobile, with Super Mario Run effectively being a premium app, Fire Emblem relying heavily on
Gacha and Animal Crossing
using a more tried and trusted impatience mechanism to monetize.