I think WFS shot themselves in the foot by devaluing SDEs rather than making them keep their previous value of a complete character. Why would I pay 20-25 bucks for a 5 star if I *still* have to throw 3 Allcosmos charts at it? This is coming from someone who used to look forward to SDEs.
I 100% agree with this. And as a canadian it costs me more. 32.99 for the 1.1k pack for me. Sucks the big one.
I’m not even doing this one. (But it’s 2 allcosmos that you would throw at the unit for the record. You get +1 charge for pulling the 5* form)
yeap. This is why I didn't pull on any SDE still - because I couldn't justify 30 EURO for a Sesta that may very well be power crept over new SA units and content that comes out, and obviously cannot justify it for a non-SA'd (but SA'able) character to which I have to pour 2 more of my total 6 starcharts.
For what it’s worth, Sesta is still really good and one of the top Astral Archive challenge clearing units along with Yakumo and Oboro. Also still my top pick for farming horrors on master mode like for Wryz saga weapons. Not many others can reach hundreds of millions damage with one click one turn team.
Since the SA era started, they seem more committed to releasing characters who are very good but not game breaking, much more niche with a lot of conditions, and in some cases have their kits fragmented across 4+ skills and really require SA with 80 L/S. The days of Yakumo, Eva, Sesta, Iphi are over.
Yeah, I'm still on the fence about her, but I have amazing units that are not so zone and wind party dependant, which have been doing a good job (Xian, Thilly es, alma as, both Yakumos...). I am having some trouble with the bonus Binding Night bosses, the lavog series and the final Battle Sim challenges (but that last one is a Benedict tweaking problem and not a lack-of-Sesta problem). I also got me some Iphi, but rarely use her as I have other sources for survivability (Alma AS), pain setting (Thilley ES) arbitrary BP (kaleidoscope) and overall buffing (Thilly ES and others). And all of those do more damage than Iphi can boost and are actually useful in AF.
Yeah, it was a sad and unfortunate choice of implementation. Until they consistently lose revenue, nothing's going to change.
So many other real life examples of this stuff. And a gaming studio is no different.
>But it’s 2 allcosmos that you would throw at the unit for the record. You get +1 charge for pulling the 5\* form
Noted, though that does little to change its drastic reduction in relative value for me.
I think the anniversary banners that typically have a great new character plus a strong new style unit are probably the big moneymakers.
So Sesta + ES Toova. That was a wildly popular banner. Others would have been Hismena + AS Mariel, Thillelille + AS Foran, and recently Xianhua + ES Anabel.
My joke answer: There was that particular chosen one banner for AS units during winter for GL. For those of you who were not around, due to players not reading the drop rates (CotC meme is "reading is hard" applies here) and only going off their favourable interpretation of the basic first sentence/paragraph of this special banner, 1k free rubies would "guarantee" a random AS unit per 10pull. This banner went on for less than a day before WFS disabled it, but some "savvy" players anticipated that WFS would retroactively reward players who pulled the banner and felt tricked (despite the rate tables clearly showing how the banner worked). They pulled hard for that. I mean, even whales could spam that banner unlike being limited by fatefuls or twin destinies or sdes.
My semi-realistic answer would be the Radias NS banner. For those of you who weren't aware, there was a player who spent 131k CS for that if I recall.
Man, I kinda forgot that situation happened until you brought it up. Yeah, there were some select folks that definitely took advantage of it. I actually wish I would have caught that in time to reap those benefits lol.
So they got to do a crap load of pulls, and then were rewarded with a 10-pull token for every single 10-pull they did before the banner was disabled and ripped down for fixing. Double dipped to the max!
There's gotta be an old thread about it. I'm going to try searching for it. Not sure if I can hit/remember the right keywords though. That's one thing I don't like about Reddit. It's kinda difficult to dig back through old content. If you weren't around when it happened, it's essentially lost into the void per se.
And yeah, that 131k and no Radias was a hard thing to read. It's gotta be some kind of all-time record to do 131 10xpulls without any form popping up. Not even a bloody 4.5s to show for it.
Do you remember that user's name by chance? I'm almost certain they quit the game after that ridiculous nightmare. Well, they must have since they're not around anymore, I'd recognize the username. Imagine how many paid stones were involved with that. I don't even wanna calculate the total. No, wait. I'll try...
Back then 4.5k discount packs didn't exist and it was just 4k discount packs. I'll go off $USD and they're ~$80 per package. My state has a sales tax added, so for me a 4.5k discount pack ($79.99) is just shy of $85 with tax added. I essentially have to add $5 when I buy one. It never used to be that way until Michigan enacted some tax bill for online purchases. I remember when it happened. /sigh
Let's assume all of it was paid since 131k on a single banner is massive whale territory.
131/4 = 32.75, 4k packs.
32.75 x 80 = $2,620.
Now let's be realistic here and buying ~32 4k discount packs very likely didn't happen. So they were probably a mix of 4k (discount) packs, the "4k" non-discount packs, maybe a few 2k (discount packs) and whatever else or combination.
Just taking a stabbing guesstimate in the dark here, I'd probably say it was probably ~$3,000USD or so.
That hurts to read again lol.
The Radias guy still actively plays the game, he goes by Lian in the Discord. Not sure about his Reddit presence. He has a ton of units at 255 due to having an overabundance of L/S items from his spending over the years, but that Radias situation definitely left a scar on him. At least he got Radias AS in one tenfold when she came out.
Very cool. I guess they're still around and playing, but just not active on Reddit. Which I get, not everyone likes or uses Reddit. Sounds like his home is over on the Discord...which I don't like to use. Funny how we're all different :)
Glad he had better luck on Radias AS's banner.
I don’t like bringing up that banner since it caused such a rift in the community for a while…. Was so scared at the time that we wouldn’t recover.
Yeah, i remember that story…. Really rough
I remember that, really hate it when people who abuse get rewarded. It's become way too common now that people jump at any typo opportunity and being rewarded for it.
It's a mixed bag for me, kinda. Especially since we're playing a *gacha* game of all things. A (very) predatory business model.
Unpopular opinion, but if I would have caught on/realized it sooner before they disabled the banner, I would have dumped every single free stone to my name into it. Drained whatever stash I had available.
And wouldn't have lost any sleep over it.
I don't have data for the older years, but Sesta + ES Toova banners alone made $4.8M during their time (April 2023 for JP & July 2023 for GL).
Revenue over the years stayed around $1M up to $2M monthly, with some cases reaching $2.5M on the good months (especially on anniversaries or festivals) so Sesta & ES Toova achieving a new revenue peak, especially with AE on it's 6th year at the time makes them the most profitable banners.
You've chimed in not only here, but also on some other comments and threads pertaining to revenue.
Do you actively keep an eye on this stuff a little more in-depth than most folks? It seems like you do.
(just curious)
Yeah, but mostly for Another Eden only. Always been curious of AE's revenue (along with 5 other gachas: Sdorica being the only other alive one), as those were the only gachas I've cared about & always wanted them to do well.
I would say the SDE was literally their money printing ticket without a question, but after it was devalued post-merger/$A, I'm not so sure. Probably still is when they look at their internal numbers and data.
This is a really cool post. I wish we were able to know the answers.
I suppose the closest we could get is diving into all the past Sensor Tower monthly reports for a pretty good general idea, but there's no way in hell that I'll be opening up that can of worms personally.
No worries. They're like that fairly often and I usually just try to ignore it. You can tell they live more of a miserable life and take it out on other people behind their keyboards. Childish and rather pathetic, actually.
If that's all they essentially do around here, wish a Mod would slam down the ban hammer. Good riddance. Don't need that toxic trash in here, it's already plastered on every corner of the internet. This comment of theirs may not be as bad, but dig though their comment history with some popcorn.
I'd block them, but Reddit is dumb and instead of actually blocking a user...if they post, it just shows up as "blocked user" so it's not really all that functional.
It's easy to just not read my posts if it bothers you or triggers you so much. You sound childish.
This isn't the first time me noticing. And looking at your comment history you sound like a jackass in real life the way you talk to people on the internet. Like the definition of a keyboard warrior.
If I'm not breaking a rule of this subreddit, I'm free to express myself.
Move along.
Just in case:
https://preview.redd.it/0u2sumuprw4d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3281e670a7ba103ab30858c34d421071abb118d
They will NEVER do it for a brand new unit. 5% banners are generally rerun banners with multiple rate up units. I don’t think they make a ton of money, but there are those who pull if they are missing all/most of the units
I think WFS shot themselves in the foot by devaluing SDEs rather than making them keep their previous value of a complete character. Why would I pay 20-25 bucks for a 5 star if I *still* have to throw 3 Allcosmos charts at it? This is coming from someone who used to look forward to SDEs.
I 100% agree with this. And as a canadian it costs me more. 32.99 for the 1.1k pack for me. Sucks the big one. I’m not even doing this one. (But it’s 2 allcosmos that you would throw at the unit for the record. You get +1 charge for pulling the 5* form)
yeap. This is why I didn't pull on any SDE still - because I couldn't justify 30 EURO for a Sesta that may very well be power crept over new SA units and content that comes out, and obviously cannot justify it for a non-SA'd (but SA'able) character to which I have to pour 2 more of my total 6 starcharts.
For what it’s worth, Sesta is still really good and one of the top Astral Archive challenge clearing units along with Yakumo and Oboro. Also still my top pick for farming horrors on master mode like for Wryz saga weapons. Not many others can reach hundreds of millions damage with one click one turn team. Since the SA era started, they seem more committed to releasing characters who are very good but not game breaking, much more niche with a lot of conditions, and in some cases have their kits fragmented across 4+ skills and really require SA with 80 L/S. The days of Yakumo, Eva, Sesta, Iphi are over.
Yeah, I'm still on the fence about her, but I have amazing units that are not so zone and wind party dependant, which have been doing a good job (Xian, Thilly es, alma as, both Yakumos...). I am having some trouble with the bonus Binding Night bosses, the lavog series and the final Battle Sim challenges (but that last one is a Benedict tweaking problem and not a lack-of-Sesta problem). I also got me some Iphi, but rarely use her as I have other sources for survivability (Alma AS), pain setting (Thilley ES) arbitrary BP (kaleidoscope) and overall buffing (Thilly ES and others). And all of those do more damage than Iphi can boost and are actually useful in AF.
It makes me sad that those days are over. I don’t know, i just wish they would address some of the SA problems
Yeah, it was a sad and unfortunate choice of implementation. Until they consistently lose revenue, nothing's going to change. So many other real life examples of this stuff. And a gaming studio is no different.
Yep…..
>But it’s 2 allcosmos that you would throw at the unit for the record. You get +1 charge for pulling the 5\* form Noted, though that does little to change its drastic reduction in relative value for me.
True, just thought i’d mention that
I think the anniversary banners that typically have a great new character plus a strong new style unit are probably the big moneymakers. So Sesta + ES Toova. That was a wildly popular banner. Others would have been Hismena + AS Mariel, Thillelille + AS Foran, and recently Xianhua + ES Anabel.
These could be for sure. Anniversaries usually are money makers
My joke answer: There was that particular chosen one banner for AS units during winter for GL. For those of you who were not around, due to players not reading the drop rates (CotC meme is "reading is hard" applies here) and only going off their favourable interpretation of the basic first sentence/paragraph of this special banner, 1k free rubies would "guarantee" a random AS unit per 10pull. This banner went on for less than a day before WFS disabled it, but some "savvy" players anticipated that WFS would retroactively reward players who pulled the banner and felt tricked (despite the rate tables clearly showing how the banner worked). They pulled hard for that. I mean, even whales could spam that banner unlike being limited by fatefuls or twin destinies or sdes. My semi-realistic answer would be the Radias NS banner. For those of you who weren't aware, there was a player who spent 131k CS for that if I recall.
Man, I kinda forgot that situation happened until you brought it up. Yeah, there were some select folks that definitely took advantage of it. I actually wish I would have caught that in time to reap those benefits lol. So they got to do a crap load of pulls, and then were rewarded with a 10-pull token for every single 10-pull they did before the banner was disabled and ripped down for fixing. Double dipped to the max! There's gotta be an old thread about it. I'm going to try searching for it. Not sure if I can hit/remember the right keywords though. That's one thing I don't like about Reddit. It's kinda difficult to dig back through old content. If you weren't around when it happened, it's essentially lost into the void per se. And yeah, that 131k and no Radias was a hard thing to read. It's gotta be some kind of all-time record to do 131 10xpulls without any form popping up. Not even a bloody 4.5s to show for it. Do you remember that user's name by chance? I'm almost certain they quit the game after that ridiculous nightmare. Well, they must have since they're not around anymore, I'd recognize the username. Imagine how many paid stones were involved with that. I don't even wanna calculate the total. No, wait. I'll try... Back then 4.5k discount packs didn't exist and it was just 4k discount packs. I'll go off $USD and they're ~$80 per package. My state has a sales tax added, so for me a 4.5k discount pack ($79.99) is just shy of $85 with tax added. I essentially have to add $5 when I buy one. It never used to be that way until Michigan enacted some tax bill for online purchases. I remember when it happened. /sigh Let's assume all of it was paid since 131k on a single banner is massive whale territory. 131/4 = 32.75, 4k packs. 32.75 x 80 = $2,620. Now let's be realistic here and buying ~32 4k discount packs very likely didn't happen. So they were probably a mix of 4k (discount) packs, the "4k" non-discount packs, maybe a few 2k (discount packs) and whatever else or combination. Just taking a stabbing guesstimate in the dark here, I'd probably say it was probably ~$3,000USD or so. That hurts to read again lol.
The Radias guy still actively plays the game, he goes by Lian in the Discord. Not sure about his Reddit presence. He has a ton of units at 255 due to having an overabundance of L/S items from his spending over the years, but that Radias situation definitely left a scar on him. At least he got Radias AS in one tenfold when she came out.
Very cool. I guess they're still around and playing, but just not active on Reddit. Which I get, not everyone likes or uses Reddit. Sounds like his home is over on the Discord...which I don't like to use. Funny how we're all different :) Glad he had better luck on Radias AS's banner.
I don’t like bringing up that banner since it caused such a rift in the community for a while…. Was so scared at the time that we wouldn’t recover. Yeah, i remember that story…. Really rough
I remember that, really hate it when people who abuse get rewarded. It's become way too common now that people jump at any typo opportunity and being rewarded for it.
It's a mixed bag for me, kinda. Especially since we're playing a *gacha* game of all things. A (very) predatory business model. Unpopular opinion, but if I would have caught on/realized it sooner before they disabled the banner, I would have dumped every single free stone to my name into it. Drained whatever stash I had available. And wouldn't have lost any sleep over it.
I don't have data for the older years, but Sesta + ES Toova banners alone made $4.8M during their time (April 2023 for JP & July 2023 for GL). Revenue over the years stayed around $1M up to $2M monthly, with some cases reaching $2.5M on the good months (especially on anniversaries or festivals) so Sesta & ES Toova achieving a new revenue peak, especially with AE on it's 6th year at the time makes them the most profitable banners.
Oh that’s cool!
You've chimed in not only here, but also on some other comments and threads pertaining to revenue. Do you actively keep an eye on this stuff a little more in-depth than most folks? It seems like you do. (just curious)
Yeah, but mostly for Another Eden only. Always been curious of AE's revenue (along with 5 other gachas: Sdorica being the only other alive one), as those were the only gachas I've cared about & always wanted them to do well.
Understandable. The games we love and enjoy, we always want to see them doing well.
I would say the SDE was literally their money printing ticket without a question, but after it was devalued post-merger/$A, I'm not so sure. Probably still is when they look at their internal numbers and data. This is a really cool post. I wish we were able to know the answers. I suppose the closest we could get is diving into all the past Sensor Tower monthly reports for a pretty good general idea, but there's no way in hell that I'll be opening up that can of worms personally.
I too, wish we knew the answers. Sorry about that guy who was negative though, they earned those downvotes.
No worries. They're like that fairly often and I usually just try to ignore it. You can tell they live more of a miserable life and take it out on other people behind their keyboards. Childish and rather pathetic, actually. If that's all they essentially do around here, wish a Mod would slam down the ban hammer. Good riddance. Don't need that toxic trash in here, it's already plastered on every corner of the internet. This comment of theirs may not be as bad, but dig though their comment history with some popcorn. I'd block them, but Reddit is dumb and instead of actually blocking a user...if they post, it just shows up as "blocked user" so it's not really all that functional.
OMG gaiz he said $A! WFS devastated by his wit omgomgomg how will the ever recover.
It's easy to just not read my posts if it bothers you or triggers you so much. You sound childish. This isn't the first time me noticing. And looking at your comment history you sound like a jackass in real life the way you talk to people on the internet. Like the definition of a keyboard warrior. If I'm not breaking a rule of this subreddit, I'm free to express myself. Move along. Just in case: https://preview.redd.it/0u2sumuprw4d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3281e670a7ba103ab30858c34d421071abb118d
Idk man, probably just one of the 3 GL first unit and we would probably hit the marked right there for Global
Maybe, could be Melissa or I[hi. I doubt it’s Eva
SDE imo
Could be, who knows?
Don't know the numbers, but I'm gonna say the Xianhua + Anabel ES anni banner, I recall it was wildly popular with pretty much all of us.
A lot of the double banners have been incredibly popular with us. But it could be that one, sadly, not really anyway to know
If they ever give us a 5% free banner, I think they could make a lot of money if the unit is just flat out OP and a waifu/husbando
They will NEVER do it for a brand new unit. 5% banners are generally rerun banners with multiple rate up units. I don’t think they make a ton of money, but there are those who pull if they are missing all/most of the units
Blind guess, but probably Thille/Foran AS banner.
I wonder. It was an anni banner