To the surprise of absolutely no one, another big modern gacha game has, in the eyes of many players, fumbled its anniver🎃sary celebrations and responded almost immediately with conciliatory freebies. This time it's Kuro Games' open-world action RPG Wuthering Waves in the hotseat, passing out additional rewards just days after whipping the community into a frenzy with an update 2.3 livestream that .
On the heels of the 2.3 reveal, to address mounting criticism and disappointment regarding the game's anniversary rewards, echoing verbiage from similar spats༺ after the game's launch. Back then, it was bugs and performance; this time, it's rewards, attitude, and presentation.
"We'd like to taꦦke this opportunity to address your concerns and sincerely apologize for the disappointment," the post reads.
"Our roadmap for the recent versionܫs of Wuthering Waves allocated devel🍸opment resources to an anniversary experience in Version 2.3 that is both relaxing and entertaining. However, this allocation did not meet our Rovers' expectations for an anniversary celebration.
"At the same time, we fell short in how the broadcast was structured, scripted, a♎nd presented, leading to a poor viewing experience. We at the Dev Team have identified and acknowledge certain shortcomings in our content management, preparation, and delivery."
Kuro also acknowledges that "Wuthering Waves' accomplishments over the past year would not have been possible without our Rovers, especially Rovers who've been with us on this journey from the very start," seemingly tipping its hat to the folks who stuck with the game despite serious technical issues that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:threatened to torpedo its launch.
Extending an olive branch, as well as the team's "gratitude and sincerest apologie🐻s," Kuro has spun up a Wuthering Waves login event handing out 10 Radiant T✤ide, 10 Forging Tide, and 10 Lustrous Tide, giving players some free rolls on the main three banners. Somewhere in Kuro Games' office is a line of glass cases embossed, "In case of riots, break glass," with free rolls inside and a few already shattered cases standing as reminders.
This emergency freebie hasn't landed perfectly, either. Players are still skewering Kuro for leaving the actual anniversary on the lighter side, with a focus on new or returning players and paid incentives rather than giveaways, while chucking out a logi😼n event like chum.
"This felt like them dr♔opping the cake and giving us the strawberries from the fridge," th🤡e top comment on .
"The 'stay tuned' part is doing some heavy lifting here because if the 10/10/10 is all, that's a pretty feeble response," another 🔯player writes, clocking the "stay tuned for more u♕pdates" comment from Kuro.
"The problem of the banners is still exactly the same. The 30 pulls don't do anything to solve that really," says another reply, focusing on the anniversary 🎃rerun banners that, like the normal versions, don't actually guarantee your selected agent.
Why does this sort of anniversary drama happen with seemingly every game like this, including Genshin Impact an🉐d Honkai: Star Rail? The easy answer is that gacha games are designed to stoke disappointment and players always want more, but I think there's more to it.
The post-Genshin wave of action gacha games has introduced many players to 🎉the inherently predatory and fun-second, money-first practices that ha𒉰ve dominated some regional markets for years, and these new players seem less accepting of the genre's baggage.
Genshin also triggereꦆd a paradigm shift in how gachas are made and monetized, with many games now emulating developer Hoyoverse's style wholesale.
The expectation within the 🍃gacha space is that anniversary celebrations are the one tim🦩e a year where games go hog-wild with oodles of free stuff, but Genshin and its ilk have consistently been more reserved with rewards.
Wuthering Waves has taken countless cu🌺es from Genshin already, but fans had hoped it might set a new trend in anniversary plans.
Instead, its anniversary blowback has been nearly beat-for-beat – if𓄧 anything, the backlash has been intensified by lingering soreness from Wuthering Waves' post-launch comeback arc and conflicting player expectations.
If🌃 and how Kuro can fully appease everyone remains to be seen, but as someone who likes these games despite the gacha trappings, I keep coming back to an aꦦdage that's also served me well in Destiny 2: just give people more stuff.
Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and moꦑre while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning ಌDestiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
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