A successful first molt
We will not repeat the presentations here since our test of the game is still viable one year later, even if this first year allows us to have another vision on the HoYoverse gacha. Following the great tradition of Genshin Impact via the provision of new features every six weeks, with updates set like clockwork (except for version 2.0 which was spread out over time), Honkai Star Rail obviously no longer has the same content as when it was released.
If we put aside the extension of the main quest of the title as well as all the events which punctuated the updates, we can especially note the arrival of a new planet to visit with the sumptuous Penacony. An environment that oscillates between something very urban and festive, while having a more dreamlike and above all darker side. Jarilo-VI and the Luofu were already successes, but Penacony raises the bar even higher, which it also owes to a plot much more successful than that of the previous planet, full of twists and turns and above all filled with charismatic characters .
Advertisement
The arrival of a new world in Honkai Star Rail is however not as exciting as a new region in Genshin Impact, it must be recognized. Due to its nature as a very linear RPG, exploration is not a priority here, and we go around these neighborhoods quite quickly. This is undoubtedly one of the problems of the game: between two updates, once the quests and events are completed, boredom rears its ugly head.
Especially since the events offered are limited by the structure of the game and can hardly be reinvented. Between chaining fights or doing business management, nothing until version 2.0 seemed very exciting here. This latest update brought a bit of diversity with more mini-games, but nothing really thrilling. Coming back to the game daily can therefore lose flavor, and this is one of the concerns that was highlighted last year.
From daily to weekly
Two solutions were then available to HoYoverse: increase the pace of events, or make the game less time-consuming. And time is an essential component in service games such as those from the Chinese studio. The subject was also at the center of one of our questions when we were able to speak with HoYoverse before the release of Honkai Star Rail. Genshin Impact already requires a certain investment to be sure not to miss anything in the game, and since the two titles target the same community (or almost), we could see the problem coming to the extent that not everyone could handle both games at the same time. The studio wasn't really worried about this, but it's clear that it took steps to avoid this “overload” of playing time.
He started making (important) events less anchored in a given time period. Contrary to Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail Does not punish you for not having time to play when a temporary event takes place. This remains available after its “expiration” just like a large part of its rewards, thus allowing you not to miss any quest in the game. In a title where you quickly reach the end of the content, this adjustment was more than necessary .
Advertisement
But above all the game introduced an essential measure which somewhat changed the relationship that we could have on a daily basis with the game. Honkai Star Rail, completing “dungeons” (we call them that to make it easier to explain) to increase the strength of your characters requires energy, a habit for a gacha. This energy is restored over time, but it necessarily reaches a limit in order to require you to return to the game daily to spend it. It is mainly because of this mechanic that a gacha like Genshin Impact is very time-consuming, since not using this energy means missing the good return on the rewards offered by the game.
Aware that the Honkai Star Rail was not Genshin Impact and that the two could hurt each other because of that, HoYoverse very quickly decided to increase the maximum threshold of energy to collect. A measure that was not sufficient until the arrival of another functionality, which allows energy to be accumulated for several days in a row. So, not playing the title for more than a week does not necessarily become a problem as this accumulated energy can be spent in a single gaming session. Between this, a Season Pass which no longer requires daily activity and the fact of being able to revisit old events published in the game, Honkai Star Rail thus becomes less energy consuming and respect your playing time a little more.
More rewards to better hide gacha problems
The solution is not miraculous, however. Being the good gacha that he is, the primary interest of the game is to offer you the opportunity to acquire new characters via banners which are limited in time. A fairly predatory system in that you only have a certain number of weeks to play the lottery in order to obtain the desired charactereven if it means losing often and having this countdown in front of you which will increasingly convince you to take out your credit card.
On this aspect, Honkai Star Rail is not that different from the studio's other productions, or even games of the genre on the market. The rate of obtaining a 5-star character remains low and if we count this in real money, having a 100% chance of obtaining the character can quickly increase the bill beyond a hundred euros.
A criticism that has long been made of Genshin Impact, and still is. And if we try so hard to draw up a comparison between the two titles, it is certainly because they share the same questionable economic model while being produced by the same studio, but also to show that Honkai Star Rail seems to learn the right lessons from the mistakes of his predecessor. After all, with several billion dollars generated since its launch, Genshin Impact can be a great testing ground without this having a major impact on its revenues, since the game community is now too anchored in the experience to suddenly jump ship. Honkai Star Rail is not so lucky and had to avoid certain faults that were too problematic.
This is partly why he is much more generous in terms of rewards, with “summon tickets” distributed more frequently. The game even went so far as to offer a free 5-star character (the aptly named Dr. Ratio) from version 1.6, something that Genshin Impact has never dared to do so despite its almost four years of existence and multiple controversies over the stinginess of its birthdays which have earned it several review-bombings.
The new kid takes the lead
Is it also because Honkai Star Rail generated less money in its beginnings and must build loyalty in its community in a different way? That's part of the problem, but don't think that the RPG is a little thumbs up to the ogre Genshin. Around its version 2.0, launched last February, less than a year after its release, the latest HoYoverse game has exceeded the 100 million downloads mark. A major milestone which does not necessarily translate into high profitability.
To see if it really is, we can only rely on the reports from sites like Sensor Tower or AppMagic, although they are incomplete in the absence of certain data such as revenues generated on consoles. It is last November that Honkai Star Rail would have exceeded the symbolic mark of the billion dollars generated. That's a little more than seven months after its initial launch, which is a more than remarkable performance and one that few games can boast of today. The RPG was, however, slightly slower than its predecessorsince Genshin Impact had passed this milestone in a little less than six months. Nothing to be ashamed of either. Especially since he recently showed that he was not going to cling to this place of eternal second.
Because the gacha economy is not linear. All it takes is for a game to feature a popular character on one of its summon banners for the numbers to soar. Genshin Impact showed it, and Honkai Star Rail proves it once again. Since the arrival of its version 2.0 in February, the title has recorded increasing results thanks to the popularity of characters like Black Swan, Aventurine, and especially Acheron.
The more important characters there are to summon, the more the community spends. Thus, in February, if we only base ourselves on figures made on mobiles (via AppMagic), Honkai Star Rail exceeded Genshin Impact with $90.5 million generated versus $89.8 million. A gap which widened in March, with 118.3 million dollars for the RPG against “only” 58.5 million for Genshin. For this same month, Sensor Tower asserts for his part that Honkai would have generated 145 million dollars (still on mobile), far ahead Genshin which would be 68 million, and even far ahead of all other competitors on the market.
A difference which can be explained in several ways, if we also take into account that recent updates of Genshin Impact (version 4.4 and 4.5) were weaker than usual, especially against a Honkai Star Rail which introduced its version 2.0 at the same time. It is in any case interesting to see that there is a certain form of balance here between the two titles, which suggests that those who spend money on one also spend on the other. And if this shared community spends too much in one, it can less afford to do the same in the other over the same period.
The perfect balance?
Is competing with yourself not a problem for HoYoverse? Not in the least if we base ourselves on the latest report from the Hurun Research Institute (relayed by Kotaku), who believes that this is the most profitable private (let's say “independent”) company in the world of video games, just ahead of Niantic. HoYoverse is even valued at more than $23 billion todayand if he owes it largely to Genshin Impactperhaps this is Honkai Star Rail which also allows it to last over time.
The latter probably does not have the same cultural impact as Genshin, even if he is entitled to the same preferential treatment in major international meetings by being highlighted in almost all of the conferences of dear Geoff Keighley. But this lesser reputation does not prevent him from printing a lot of greenbacks.
The arrival of Penacony and the multiple awards for the anniversary play a large part in the fact that the title is doing better than ever a year after its release. HoYoverse managed to transform the trial while finding a balance with its other behemoth. Now, the company can rely on one of the two games when the other shows lower performance depending on the updates made. It remains to be seen if or how Zenless Zone Zero will shake up the balance of power within HoYoverse productions. In any case, the studio will certainly still emerge as the big winner.
Read also :