How the world’s most popular game failed to put a smile on its players’ faces

The primary lockdowns in 2020 were hard for all of us. Numerous brands reinvented themselves and achieved extraordinary success. And some became extinct in a matter of days during this time. Then some outliers created solutions and products to capitalize on the possibilities and dominate the market in response to disruptions in consumers’ lifestyles.

What is the point of being tall if you are not going to make the people who made you tall sit on your shoulders and feel elevated?

Genshin Impact (GI), an action role-playing, free-to-play (F2P) game, having only launched in September 2020, profoundly affected the whole gaming industry. For a world that had been shut down, an open-world game appeared to be a faraway universe’s answer to a desperate cry from the heart.

GI became the only game in history to earn a billion dollars in just six months. The gamers were crazy about the game, and the game developers made sure their game was incredibly good to keep the players from getting enough of the game.

Each time it released a new character pack, the most obsessed players generated a cool $12 million (in a single day) in revenue for GI.

Everything in the GI universe was going fantastic, until GI decided to celebrate its first anniversary, at which point things became real… and ugly!

When brands re-energize their customer engagement strategy and loyalty initiatives by aligning them with the everyday life choices of their consumers, they increase retention and create superfans.

Fans of the game expected great prizes for their dedication on the game’s first anniversary. Instead, GI offered only a quarter of a gacha doll’s price. What is the point of being tall if you are not going to make the people who made you tall sit on your shoulders and feel elevated?

When players started complaining about the measly rewards from GI on the official forum, the game’s publisher deleted the complaints. This led to the players expressing their frustrations on the app’s review section on the Google Play store, plunging Genshin Impact’s score from 4.5 to a meagre 2.8.

If GI could have duly, appropriately, and timely rewarded its players, it might have deepened its emotional ties with them.

It is a terrible irony that a gaming company that excels in enticing players to purchase fantastical accessories and levels fails to amaze where it counts most – ensuring that hooked users stay hooked through meaningful engagement strategies.

Steps that could have kept GI on its exponential trajectory

If GI had implemented tailored rewards for its estimated three million users through gamification, it would have had happier players and not disappointed fans on its anniversary.

GI failed to go the extra mile. It was the occasion to make its players happy by circumventing the rules, adding extras, or offering contextual rewards for their in-game actions. If GI could have duly, appropriately, and timely rewarded its players, it might have deepened its emotional ties with them, transforming happy users to a loyal tribe.

Maintaining a transient and transactional relationship with customers is no longer sufficient. GI is no doubt an awesome game. However, did it perform admirably when it mattered? Not at all.

A brand is only ever truly happy when its customers are genuinely happy.

Never too late to course-correct your engagement strategy

Brands must go above and beyond to maintain meaningful engagement with customers, from the first to last touchpoint. This can happen through hyper-personalization, dynamic engagement mechanics, advanced gamification and focusing on data-in-motion rather than data-at-rest. When brands re-energize their customer engagement strategy and loyalty initiatives by aligning them with the everyday life choices of their consumers, they increase retention and create superfans.

Not only does that make customers happy, but it also makes the brand happy. And we all know, a brand is only ever truly happy when its customers are genuinely happy.

Perx Loyalty and Engagement Platform has helped brands transform their customer engagement strategies and actively contributed to their topline growth by increasing customer engagement by up to 12x. Connect with us to learn how you can influence and drive customer actions in the instant gratification, mobile-first economy.