Key Takeaways
- Gacha games and lootboxes are heavily criticized for promoting gambling to underage players and lacking transparency.
- Crypto games face scrutiny for operating in a regulatory gray zone, allowing them to bypass regional laws and potentially harm players.
- Blockchain technology makes it possible to increase gaming transparency and be provably fair.
Crypto and Gacha games both leverage lootbox mechanics to entice players into making in-game purchases with the chance of pulling some rare loot and crypto rewards.
However, their approaches differ because of the technology they are built on.
Here, we’ll explore whether crypto or gacha games do loot boxes better and consider how each one handles fairness, transparency, ownership, and player experience.
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What are Gacha Games?
Origins
The word “gacha” comes from “gashapon”, the Japanese term for coin-operated machines that dispense toys or prizes at random.
Japanese gaming giant Bandai would popularize it in the late 70s by trademarking the “Gashapon” name.
They became known for dropping high-quality, trademarked, and limited-edition items of famous characters or symbols from anime, manga, video games, pop idols, and niche interests.
These vending machines would go on to become a staple of Japanese culture, with new prizes released every month.
Ultimately, this created a secondary market for collectors, which encouraged speculative, gambling-like behavior from gacha collectors.
There are now over 360,000 gashapon machines in Japan, and the industry.
Lootboxes
Today, gacha games are most commonly known as free-to-play, or “freemium”, games on mobile.
Instead of a physical capsule, it’s a pre-coded digital treasure chest, a lootbox, with a random number generator (RNG) determining the quality of the prize.
The digital era introduced new ways for gaming companies to compel players to spend money in-game, which kicked off in the early 2010s with titles like Vindictus, Brave Frontier, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and other mobile-based games.
Lootboxes also rose to prominence through major video games like Counter-Strike, Overwatch, and FIFA.
The process is simple. Buy in-game currency using real-world currency, and purchase the lootboxes for a chance to get something extremely rare.
This process has often been criticized for promoting gambling, especially to underage players.
Genshin Impact is the most successful gacha game of all time. It’s estimated to have made over $6.3 billion since launching in September 2020.
However, unlike Gashapon toys, crypto, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), you can’t sell Genshin Impact characters or in-game items.
Furthermore, there’s a distinct lack of transparency. Unlike some crypto games, there’s no way to check the RNG’s code, audits, or systems to see if you’re getting a fair roll each time you crack open a lootbox.
Crypto Games
By their very nature, crypto games have the potential to be demonstrably fairer thanks to blockchain technology.
It allows crypto gaming devs to take a distinctly different approach and leverage immutable, transparent, automated systems to ensure that players are getting a fair shake.
But, as many crypto platforms operate in a gray regulatory space, they’re able to bypass regional restrictions, opening up the potential for scams, rug pulls, and other negative outcomes for players.
- Blockchain: Makes all transactions and platform code available for public audit.
- Smart Contracts: Decentralize and automate processes, reducing the risk of manipulation.
- NFTs: In-game items and assets are now tradable and truly owned by the player.
All in all, these elements have the potential to make lootbox systems more ethical within games, which can bridge trust between players.
| Aspect | Gatcha Games | Crypto Games |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency | Opaque, often unclear odds. | High transparency, verifiable blockchain data. |
| Fairness | Criticized for predatory gambling-like systems and mechanics. | Potential to have fair, tamper-proof systems. Criticized |
| Ownership | Digital items are locked within a single game. | Assets are owned and controlled by the player. Readily convertible and tradable. |
| Cost | Low, but costs are obscured behind in-game currency conversions and poor reward results. Regulations may prevent overspending. | Medium to high. Initial fiat to crypto conversion + on-chain transaction fees. Overspend risk. |
| Accessibility | Intuitive and as easy as any online purchase. | Requires know-how to access. |
| Regulation | Regulated, can face bans and restrictions. | Usually unrestricted, it can result in negative outcomes. |
Which is Best?
Challenges remain, but there are some upsides.
Crypto games have the potential to establish fairer practices in gaming through a mix of verifiable code, automated tamper-proof systems, and player-owned assets.
But, there’s still room for these platforms to promote unsafe gambling practices and employ predatory practices, regardless of provably fair systems.
Ultimately, wagering money for a prize of any sort, whether through casinos, play-to-earn games, or a gashapon machine, is gambling.
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