Gacha Game Price Comparison
Every so often, I stumple upon someone who've spent money on various gacha games, saying, "Man, X is so expensive compared to Y". As a freeloader who enjoys playing but never spends money on any of those games, it got me thinking: Is there really a significant difference in the cost between these games?
...At first glance, it is impossible to determine how much you would spend on them because you don't really make direct purchases. You start by buying virtual currencies, then you convert them into ingame premium currency and THEN you can pull on a banner.
Wait a sec... if I break it down like that, it does't sound all that bad. Okay, let's try going through an example together.
Picture a banner which gives us the featured character when we pull 100 times and with each pull costing 160 scented candles. As we look through the shop to make our purchase, we stumble upon various beeswax offers that can be converted to scented candles.
Here are the offers:
- 50 beeswax = 0.99
- 100 beeswax = 1.99
- 200 beeswax = 3.99
- 600 beeswax = 10.99
- 1200 beeswax = 20.99
Now, it is important to note that the conversion rate from beeswax to scented candle isn't a straightforward 1:1. In fact, 50 beeswax translates to 150 scented candles.
To reach the 16000 scented candles needed, we need appx. 5333~ beeswax. Lastly, we have to determine which offer is best suited. In this case, we could either choose to buy 5 sets of 1200 beeswax out of convience or, if we want to be cost efficent, buy 4 sets of 1200 and 1 set of 600 beeswax.
In the end, it would cost us either 104.95 or 94.95.
I hope this example gives you the gist how confusing it can be and requires you to do some mental gymnastics to pin down the exact price.
Due to the lack of price transparency, I always assumed that every gacha has somewhat the same price tag.
News Flash: I was wrong.
In a Google Excel sheet, I've crunched the numbers to calculate the cost of the Hard Pity/Spark system in the games I personally play.
It is to say that those results do not reflect the actual cost of purchasing packages. They represent more of a hypothecical cost if you were to use the exact premium ingame currency to reach a Hard Pity/ Spark. Not only that but it is also only an estimate due to rounding and currency conversion.
Please be aware that the costs emcompass the Hard Pity/ Spark without factoring in elements such as premium currency income (e.g. dailies, limited events, ...), monthly battle passes, etc.
