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By Yonugggaming on March 16th , 2025
The FTC sued HoYoverse, the company behind Genshin Impact, claiming they used unfair and misleading practices to get players, including kids, to spend money in the game. The lawsuit said the game made it too easy for players to buy things by accident, did not have clear terms and conditions, and made refunds hard to get.
Hoyoverse Defense to the case
HoYoverse defends that they have Terms and Conditions in their games that players failed to read, However to prolong any further legal trouble Hoyoverse agreed to settle and pay 20 million dollars to gamers and parents affected. After the decision HoyoVerse released a statement to polygon. “While we believe many of the FTC’s allegations are inaccurate, we agreed to this settlement because we value the trust of our community and share a commitment to transparency for our players. Under the agreement, we will introduce new age-gate and parental consent protections for children and young teens and increase our in-game disclosures around virtual currency and rewards for players in the U.S. in the coming months.” This is more of a surrender by Hoyoverse than a victory by the FTC. Genshin Impact made Tens of millions of dollars monthly in 2024 so Hoyoverse may be able to maintain despite paying the fines.
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Based on Data From statista.com
Community Reaction to the case
Due to confidentiality the parents/gamers who lost money in the lawsuit identities were hidden so there was no record of statements by them. Other community members and content creators have taken to the internet to express their opinions on the case. Such as content creator Doro44 who made the statement “Not to defend the multi billion dollar company but aren’t the gacha mechanics explained in game? If you’re allowing your kids to spend your money in a gacha game then that’s just bad parenting I’m not sorry.” This sparked debate from many people in the video game community. Another Content Creator GachaSmack offered a rebuttal via social media. “The average 35+ parent in the world has no earthly clue what a gacha game even is. The typical mom or dad is going to examine that it’s a 12+ year old rating game, examine the description as well as the “cartoon” visuals and go “this seems fine”. The gaming community is split on who is at fault in this case, however with Hoyoverse refusing to prolong the process and just pay the money they could escape criticism for now and retain their player base.
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