But a lot of games do all that why single out this one? It’s profoundly unethical game design and, more than that, a bit of a mean thing to do to your fans. None of that has stopped it from sitting atop the revenue charts in its native Japan, even among competitors that hand out free premium currency like candy. The game’s odds are cruel, its prices are high and its handouts are stingy. It twists and squeezes it until cash begins to gush out. Indeed, Fate/G rand O rder monetizes that love. But the most dedicated players don’t care, or they see the game as being worth the investment. There is, of course, a very low chance of winning the best characters. The game knows that a certain very profitable subset of users will spin that gacha hundreds of times - at about $20 for bundles of 10 spins - until they hit the jackpot, and the lady King Artoria appears before them. Fans want to fight alongside and flirt with the important characters from the beloved Fate series, not the perfectly capable benchwarmers that the game gives out for free. Players don’t need to recruit the rarest characters to progress in Fate/Grand Order. Fate/G rand O rder is very aware of how it makes money, and it’s comfortable turning it into a joke. But the game doesn’t just profit from these strategies - it makes fun of the players for buying in. This may seem like abusive behavior on the part of the developers, and you’d think that these strategies for squeezing the most money out of players would be hidden from view, or at least rationalized in some way that makes it sound fun and not like a dystopian brand of capitalism. Tales of exorbitant bills are pretty common in the world of loot box (or gacha) games, in which developers use a web of design strategies to extract thousands of dollars from superfans who, as Daigo explains, are so emotionally attached to unlocking the rare characters that they don’t set a limit on their spending. That’s a stunning figure, more than many enthusiasts will spend on their passion in a lifetime.

The Wall Street Journal recently profiled a man named Daigo who spent the equivalent of $70,000 on items and playable heroes in the mobile RPG Fate/Grand Order.

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