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Why ‘Genshin Impact’ is suddenly being review bombed

Genshin Impact’s review rating has dropped drastically as players bomb it with bad reviews for its lackluster anniversary celebration.

MiHoYo, creators of Genshin Impact, decided that for the game’s anniversary, they would hold a bus art contest and a small community event that wasn’t unlike previous holidays. Somehow, they made a grave mistake.

At one point, the game boasted a positive rating of 4.6 on Google Play, but within just about two weeks it’s dropped to 2.4. The review bombing doesn’t end there either, with a recent video posted to Genshin Impact’s Youtube channel suffering similarly ā€“ despite 96,000 thumbs up, there’s a whopping 40,000 thumbs down in comparison.

genshin impact community event art
Image: Genshin Impact / MiHoYo

Google Play’s rating system runs according to “current quality ratings” as opposed to the “lifetime average value of user reviews”, which seems to result in cases like these. Playerbases get to show their discontent pretty strongly and it makes review bombs that much more obvious.

But what are Genshin Impact’s players upset about anyway?

Apparently, the anniversary event’s login reward is similar to previous holidays and thus, nothing special. Players get 10 Wishes, which equates to about $20 worth of Genesis Crystals or Primogems. Otherwise, additional rewards have only been offered through art contests.

These external art contests have offered other rewards like a free Blessing of the Welkin Moon pass, 100 Primogems (a single in-game roll, or Wish, costs 160), or a new iPhone 13 Pro Max.

The problem there, it seems, is that not all of the playerbase are artists. That’s a fair point, but it’s not as if those who don’t partake in those contests have received nothing either. As for those that are, complaints regarding being used as free labour and advertisement for the game are rampant.

But on that note, it’s a contest ā€“ you can just choose not to participate. Not to mention that it’s not as if Genshin Impact‘sĀ developers promised anything huge for the anniversary in the first place.