Infinity Nikki's First Week Establishes A Trend That Will Hopefully Continue

Gacha games are a balancing act between keeping free-to-play fans happy while still making money, and the Infinity Nikki team over at Infold Games is doing something right in their first week of release. Since the game's debut on December 4, Infold devs have been extremely communicative with their playerbase in a few ways, primarily on X (formerly Twitter) and through in-game communications. This has established not only a trend of attentiveness to the state of the game and players, but also one of gifting players with numerous redeem codes and in-game rewards.

Redeem codes are a staple of the gacha genre as a way for devs to show their appreciation to their playerbase while also enticing new players to join. Infold has offered players over 10 unique redeem codes in the game's first week as a way of celebrating the launch, Infinity Nikki's high download numbers, and thanking them for the patience they've displayed through a few launch issues. While codes themselves are typical of gacha devs, the sheer amount that Infold has been releasing is a generous outlier.

Infinity Nikki Breaks Gacha Pattern Through Generosity

The Trait That Makes Infinity Nikki Different Lends To A Unique Gacha Mechanic

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Unlike other gacha games, players don't pull for characters in Infinity Nikki; instead, they pull for outfit pieces that can be used to dress Nikki up as well as compete in Styling Challenges across Miraland. This difference in focus-away from combat and towards dress up-makes Infinity Nikki the perfect place for devs to be a little more giving in terms of in-game currency and other premium rewards. In a game like Genshin Impact, it makes sense for pulls to be a bit more limited, as there are only so many characters to get, but in Nikki games there are hundreds of pieces of clothing to be found.

Genshin Impact and Infinity Nikki both deal with duplicates in similar ways; they provide upgrade materials. Infinity Nikki doesn't have characters, but uses a system similar to Constellations in Genshin that allows players to evolve five-star outfits.

Thanks to the higher number of five-star items that Infinity Nikki features when compared to Genshin, it makes sense that devs would give players more chances to pull through earning Diamonds in-game as well as through gifts. It takes a lot more Diamonds to get a full five-star outfit than a character in Genshin, so providing players a chance to do so during the game's infancy is also a good way to retain players in the long-term.

The pull mechanic is one of the biggest rewards a player can get in any gacha game, so rewarding players often early on makes them more likely to continue to play for more pulls. It's a smart business decision as well as a kindness to the players who enjoy the game. In the long run, consistently providing new codes will also be a warm welcome for any later newcomers who didn't play the game on release.

If This Continues, Infinity Nikki Can Retain New Players Easier

A Good New-Player Experience Is Essential To Success For Gachas

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Moreso than any other game, free-to-play gacha games have the most pressure on them to have an excellent new-player experience. There is no monetary investment on the part of the player, so there's nothing keeping them there if the game isn't totally worth their time. This means that the onus is on the devs to provide players with enough incentive to keep playing in as many ways as possible, and good gameplay is only one of the things they have to consider.

At the end of the day, live-service games cost money to run, and even the most passionate of developers still need a revenue source in order to support their work.

Recent gacha games have a formula that was established with Genshin Impact; providing relatively engaging dailies alongside good gameplay that will allow players to earn pulls at a relatively satisfying, but still restricted rate. Players react to this formula in three ways:

Free-to-play players who don't like the grind will quit. Free-to-play players who are okay with the grind will continue to play for free, redeeming codes and taking dev gifts when they come. Players who are willing to pay will pay and continue to play, often beginning a snowball effect regarding how much they're willing to pay.

The third type of player in this scenario is the one the devs rely on the most for income, and therefore, devs have to find a tight balance between scarcity and plenty for a gacha game to survive. They need to provide F2P players with enough content not to drop the game while also providing sufficient incentive for F2P players to consider paying. At the end of the day, live-service games cost money to run, and even the most passionate of developers still need a revenue source in order to support their work.

Gacha Games Make Money Through Microtransactions

While Big-Ticket Items Like Season Passes Are Nice, Diamonds Make The Money

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By design, the pull mechanic in any gacha game takes advantage of players' fear of missing out on a certain character, weapon, or in Infinity Nikki's case, outfit. Devs make the most money by creating scarcity through limited-time banners, pressuring players to spend just a little money to get the pull they want, just this once. Once the first purchase has been made, it becomes easier for players to rationalize doing it again.

Related Infinity Nikki: 10 Beginner Tips & Tricks For Navigating Miraland Exploring Miraland in Infinity Nikki can be tricky, but there are a few things that will help make your time defeating Esselings a bit easier.

In the past few years, this practice of including microtransactions in games has become more and more prevalent. There has been a lot of criticism around the monetization of games in increasingly predatory ways, but based on Infinity Nikki's first week, Infold might be doing things differently. The studio has given new players hundreds of Diamonds worth of pulls after the game's launch, and with tons of ways to earn Diamonds without spending money, it seems that this generosity will continue.

When compared to games like Genshin, which offers new players a complicated system of Primogems, Original Resin, Intertwined Fates, Acquaint Fates, and other in-game currencies to purchase, Infinity Nikki's microtransactions are blessedly simple. It offers two types of Crystals that are used for permanent and limited banner pulls alongside Stellarite, which is an un-earnable paid currency. While this might change as the game grows, Infinity Nikki's simplicity works in its favor as it's both more user-friendly and understandable. Through good player retention developed via frequent code releases and in-game gifts, Infinity Nikki has the potential to begin a new trend in the gacha genre.