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gacha

After Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, gacha master HoYoverse set its sights on the Animal Crossing-like cosy sim genre

by admin September 27, 2025

Petit Planet – a new cosy life sim from the creators of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail – has been announced.

The game currently has PC and mobile versions confirmed, with “additional platforms” in development according to the official press release alongside the reveal. Petit Planet has you build up and develop your own tiny planet, eventually venturing out into a galaxy filled with other planets owned by cutesy NPCs.

A reveal trailer (which you can watch below) showcases what the game will look like, with a character building up a nice little home, meeting various animal friends, before hopping in a car and taking to the stars to meet a cast of other furry fellows on their own home planets.

Here’s the Petit Planet reveal trailer!Watch on YouTube

Those interested can pre-register for the game right now on the official website, as well as sign up for upcoming beta tests. There’s no word as to when these beta tests will occur or when the sign ups will close as of writing.

Rumours around a HoYoverse life sim have been circulating for a while, with the internal name Astaweave Haven known thanks to early leaks. However, this recent reveal marks the first official word on the game as well as the first peak we’ve been able to get of polished gameplay.

There is no information on how monetisation will work for Petit Planet, though given this is a HoYoverse game the expectation is that the game will feature gacha mechanics as found in Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero.

This isn’t the only game HoYoverse has in the works. The developer revealed Honkai: Nexus Anima earlier this year, a Pokemon-style creature collector and auto-battler. Petit Planet has entered a somewhat contested genre, interestingly enough. Both Pocket Pair and Nintendo have announced their own cosy farm sims in Palfarm and Pokémon Pokopia.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2 and Rain in MK11

Esports

Chinese gacha game accused of ‘stealing’ Spider-Man 2’s animations

by admin September 23, 2025

Ananta turned heads by mashing GTA-style open-world mayhem with glossy anime gacha flair.

Its September showcase spread fast online, with clips of neon raves, first-person driving, and chaotic side activities drawing comparisons to GTA. Fans said it looked like Rockstar’s playgrounds but dressed up in anime gloss.

From raves to hacking competitions, Ananta promised freedom that most gachas never even attempt. That mix of AAA presentation, supernatural agents, and playful anime sheen made it look like the most ambitious gacha yet.

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Ananta trailer sparked Spider-Man animation plagiarism debate

But the September 23 trailer sparked a different kind of attention. Viewers swore its swinging looked ripped straight from Spider-Man 2.

The swinging starts at 6:14.

The swinging through skyscrapers was not just familiar. It was, as some fans put it, “copying Spider-Man’s homework.”

Players joked about it on X. Not because they hated swinging in a digital metropolis, but because the game looked like it had lifted Spider-Man 2’s iconic moves frame-for-frame.

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Reactions piled up fast. One comment read, “How do these gacha games get away with straight up ripping off Spider-Man? These are literally Spider-Man 2 animations.”

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Another called out “GTA5 character switch animations, copy pasted lol.” Others mocked the situation with memes about Insomniac, Sony, and Marvel lawyers getting ready.

And while most of the chatter stayed playful, it’s not unheard of for companies to take things further. Sony recently filed a lawsuit against Tencent over its Horizon series, accusing the Chinese giant of creating a “slavish clone” in an upcoming project. That case showed big publishers are willing to drag copycat claims into court when they feel the line has been crossed.

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There’s no release date yet, but if Ananta delivers half of what its trailers showed, 2025 players are in for a spectacle.

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September 23, 2025 0 comments

Esports

LoL player is so unhappy with a $250 gacha skin that they’re calling for government regulation

by admin August 31, 2025

A very passionate Morgana main on Reddit has spent months talking about how they want improvements to Spirit Blossom Morgana, an Exalted skin they spent around $250 USD on.

Exalted skins are only available for a limited time and have to be rolled for via a gacha system. If you get lucky, you’ll nab the skin early on without having to spend too much money. However, drop rates are astronomically low, and the majority of people who get Exalted skins should expect to pay around $250 for them.

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Riot has explained that these skins are meant to be “hyper-exclusive“, that they’re made for truly dedicated fans who’d be willing to dish a ton of money for what Riot’s calling a “luxury good”.

However, one extremely dedicated Morgana main was very unhappy with the Spirit Blossom skin, and it’s not even because it was expensive. Rather, they were expecting to get more for their money and feel that its quality is far below that of other skins of its kind. After months of discussing how they’d like to see the skin get improved, they’re going to Europe’s government and seeking legal action.

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Dedicated Morgana main seeks legal action

Reddit user LoveForNuWa has been documenting their journey with this skin for months. The only thing they’ve posted about since June is the Spirit Blossom Morgana skin, complaining on various Reddit threads and trying to show why they believe it’s far below the standard they expected.

Their sentiment isn’t exactly unique, either. It’s not that people don’t like the skin, it’s that they believe it’s missing features that are advertised as part of the Exalted skin experience and just isn’t worth the up to $250. This user in particular doesn’t have an issue with spending that much on a skin, they’re just disappointed by what they got.

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Steve ZhangThe concept artist’s mock up for what Spirit Blossom Morgana was meant to look like in-game

So, instead of making more Reddit posts, they went to government regulators.

“With Riot’s boldness in selling this skin for €250 in the state that it’s in, and with so many players pointing out issues, missing features, as well as its clear incomparability to other Exalted skins – I felt this raised serious questions. Especially when the product fails to adhere to Riot’s own official statements about what Exalted skins are meant to represent and the standards they are expected to meet,” they claimed.

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“Long story short, yes, I actually wrote an official email to the European Commission briefly outlining the situation and asking for their view on whether Riot’s handling of this release is in line with current consumer rights and digital product standards.”

This was posted on July 25, 2025 and was followed by a month of silence. But, on August 29, 2025, the user broke their silence and returned with a response from Austria’s European Consumer Center as to what options they can take.

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They’re going to go with the third option, pooling as many player complaints as they can and sending them straight to Austria’s authorities to go to Riot on their behalf. This would then go to Ireland’s government (where Riot is based in Europe) and confront them directly. You can read the response from Austria’s Consumer Center in full here.

The Redditor concluded with this:

“This is not a malicious attack on Riot Games. I’m simply a long-time customer growing increasingly concerned about Riot’s direction, their failure to follow and uphold their own standards, their disregard for their official statements and their inconsistency with premium, high-end products like Exalted skins. Expecting players to accept this without question or consequence isn’t right and a company, especially one of Riot’s scale, isn’t exempt from following rules and laws – including those regarding digital content – and should be held accountable.

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Steve Zheng/Riot GamesConcept art for Spirit Blossom Morgana

“Ultimately, my goal isn’t about money — I’d rather see Riot fix, adjust, polish and overhaul Spirit Blossom Morgana, bring the product up to true Exalted quality, and let everyone enjoy it for what it’s sold as.”

From here, they plan to rally the Morgana mains community and continue to pressure Riot so they can get a skin they believe is worth the full $250.

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August 31, 2025 0 comments

Esports

F2P RPG Duet Night Abyss abandons gacha mechanics just weeks before launch in response to “consistent” player “dissatisfaction”

by admin August 29, 2025

Pan Studio’s free-to-play RPG Duet Night Abyss has pulled all gacha elements just weeks ahead of its October 28 launch.

In an interview with Automaton, producer Deca Bear said that whilst prior versions of the PC and mobile game had its “monetization model built around character gacha,” “consistent” complaints from fans during beta testing saw the team “scrap both the character and weapon gacha” completely.

“After analyzing player data, community feedback, and in-game survey results from the last beta, we realized that the complaints were fairly consistent,” Bear explained. “We debated the issue many times internally, and concluded that no matter how much we optimized the gacha and stamina systems, it wouldn’t be enough to address the fundamental dissatisfaction players felt.

“So, we returned to pursuing what was our original vision for Duet Night Abyss – a game that’s fun to play, easy to pick up, and doesn’t place a burden on players. To align the product with that vision, we removed both gacha and stamina. As a result, the gameplay has become more consistent and self-contained.”

Bear said that while in the short term, this may lead to a loss of “fast monetization opportunities,” in the long term, he believed it will lead to “stronger player retention, a better reputation, and a healthier, more sustainable business model.”

“From a management perspective, our aim is to create a game that can keep running for a long time,” he added. “That’s why our decisions regarding monetization are based not only on the current market, but also on what players will want three to five years from now.

“Whether players are willing to spend money depends on how much they value a product, so we’re trying not to focus on just short-term profit. We’re avoiding pay-to-win mechanics and forced spending as much as possible, instead prioritizing getting players to enjoy the game.”

The game’s characters will now be free to obtain, and “in principle,” be permanent. Pan Studios hopes it will instead be able to generate an income from Duet Night Abyss from cosmetics, animations, and accessories.

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August 29, 2025 0 comments