Honkai Star Rail, a free-to-play gacha game (basically, gambling game of chance) in which players spend anywhere from $5 to $10,000 to get characters, gear, equipment... is now releasing a disc version of their game on PlayStation 5. First issue with this is that many people don't have a disk drive in their PlayStation, and the new PS5 pro won't either. The game is also downloaded to the PlayStation store digitally anyway, so I'm not even sure what the heck the disk supposed to be for. Second, it doesn't appear to be a steelbook, just a regular old plastic PS5 game case from what I have read from other sources. This is incredibly wasteful and frustrating because these always end up in a landfill anyway. Third and finally, it appears that the things that you get in game are silly little cosmetics. Spending money on this doesn't actually get you any characters. It's not like Apex Legends where you buy the starter bundle and you get several characters to start off with, no. You get nothing, absolutely nothing to help you in game. But if you take that $40 and go in game and spend it on rolling for overpowered characters, you could definitely get one of the best characters in the game right now.

Just seems very strange to me that a free to play pay to win game is going to come out with a physical copy that doesn't provide any actual benefit to players in their gameplay.

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[–] wccrawford 24 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The disc is 100% trash. People that buy this want the cards, keychains, and (especially) the exclusive in-game items.

I am surprised that it doesn't also come with some in-game premium currency, though.

As for $40 in-game... That alone is going to net you some trash. You'll pull a lot more on the free gems you get just for exploring and playing. Sure, you could get a great character, but the odds are back-loaded so that you generally won't pull a 5-star in the first 70 pulls. $40 is like 40 pulls, maybe?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

$40 is like 40 pulls, maybe?

It depends on how you spend it. The best bang for the buck top-up pack - the $99 one - works out to about 20 pulls per $40 (this includes first-time purchase bonus). If you spent your $40 on the $5 monthly subscription (and logged in every day to claim it) it would work out to 160 pulls for your $40 - but it would take you 8 months to claim.

[–] Buttflapper 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People that buy this want the cards, keychains, and (especially) the exclusive in-game items.

Yeah, but at that rate, why not just launch a store then and sell those items? Blizzard has their own store. Plenty of franchises do. It's so weird to see a disc version of a free game. Can you imagine if fortnite did that? I don't remember if they ever had a disc version of their game, but if they did launch one today, people would be scratching their heads

[–] wccrawford 2 points 1 month ago

Honestly, free-2-play economics are so baffling that nothing they do surprises me.

There's a Genshin Impact McDonalds collab where you have to buy a very specific happy meal to get some in game wings (which I very much want) and some other garbage. I actually considered just buying the meal and giving the food to someone else (homeless?) because I can't eat that crap on my diet. But instead, I settled for telling everyone around me that I want the code if they get one, and I'll just hope.

How does that help Genshin Impact? I imagine it helps in the same way as this nonsense physical copy. People get excited about physical copies, even in normal boxes, and they get excited about exclusive items that can't be obtained any other way. That pulls in a little money directly from the sales of the plastic, but it also creates a ton of buzz around the game like this whole thread.

I think. As I said, it's pretty baffling. I have to file it under "there's no such thing as bad PR" most of the time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, at least some in-game currency is really the least they could have done if you're gonna pay money to just get the base game to begin with since it's F2P (pay-to-win) otherwise. Complete waste of money even for people who play and regularly spend money on these types of games.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A gacha game asking money for something useless? That's the entire model!

Players that buy stuff in these games usually see it as a donation to devs making a good game. If nobody bought any of the useless stuff the game would shutdown. That's how I treat the $10 a month I spend on Reverse 1999. Or they're a gambling addict and can't stop themselves from spinning the wheel.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Por que no los dos?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gacha games are bullshit and all, but I don’t think releasing a physical collector's edition is the bullshit part.

[–] Buttflapper 4 points 1 month ago

This isn't a collectors edition though? It's not even a steelbook. The word collector isn't even used in the marketing. It's just a physical release of a free to play game.

[–] helloharu 9 points 1 month ago

Is it much of a surprise when it comes to MiHoYo? Their entire model is based around this kind of thing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Have you heard of collector's items my dude?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Implying that game cases end up in the trash... especially when they're usually used to hold games these days?

You need to see more game collections! Haha

People have been deriding digital-only games for years and years now. While a stupid F2P game isn't the best thing to put on a disc, I can see why people might want it.

[–] Buttflapper 0 points 1 month ago

I worked at GameStop a long, long time ago. Lots of old console games that couldn't be sold went right to the landfill. Xbox 360 for example. So many niche small games that no one wanted even when marked down to a dollar each. We're talking tens of thousands of them just in one small city alone. I've also been to a lot of thrift and antique specialty stores in my area, and there are so many plastic case games there people are trying to get rid of. Hundreds of them. No one wants them anymore. Eventually all this plastic is just going to be thrown into a landfill. Those who actually keep this stuff long-term, maybe they don't have a lot of games or they have the space for it. But consumerism is a major issue across the world that we are struggling to keep up with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

My dude $40 in a gacha gets you jack shit hahah welcome to modern gaming