Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency (which is similar to the United States’ Federal Trade Commission) has declared the once-ubiquitous mobile-social game mechanic of “complete gacha” to be illegal, according to a report today from Andriasang. The ban officially goes into effect on July 1.
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“Complete gacha” is a potentially huge income generator for mobile-social titles. It’s a kind of virtual vending machine — a digital version of one of those old-fashioned toy machines you see in grocery stores, where you pop in a quarter and it randomly spits out a plastic bubble with a toy inside. In “complete gacha” players try to collect a whole set of prizes from these machines; only when they get the whole set can they unlock a rare item. It’s easy to see the value to developers and publishers: Players could pour money into the game indefinitely and still come no closer to getting the prize they want.
Gree and Dena’s market values are still down in the wake of today’s announcement. It’s important to note, however, that only the “complete” form of gacha (i.e. collecting sets to unlock prizes) is outlawed. Companies may still charge for randomly-generated in-game items, so these stocks still have a chance to recover once investors know how much the ban will affect profits.