RPG throws the ring of monetization into Mount Doom, drops gacha mechanics right before launch to avoid 'pay-to-win mechanics and forced spending as much as possible'

An elaborately-dressed character in Duet Night Abyss smiles kindly at the camera. — (Image credit: Hero Games)

I don't think gacha games are a rot, or anything—plenty of folks enjoy them, and grown ups can do whatever they want with their disposable income—but I'd be lying if I said that monetisation model didn't turn me right off whatever the latest horse-based craze is. Which is why I'm downright impressed by Duet Night Abyss.

Faced with the eternal power of the one ring—I mean, er, the monetisation potential of gacha mechanics—the developers of the upcoming Chinese action-RPG have decided to simply drop all of their RNG-dependent character pulls and dungeon stamina systems right before launch in late-October.

Per an interview with Automaton, producer Deca Bear confirms that "for the launch version, we’ve scrapped both the character and weapon gacha, and even removed the stamina (Sanergy) system. All characters will be free to obtain, and new characters will, in principle, be permanent.

"That means players won’t need to worry about spending money just to get characters. As for collecting resources, since dungeons no longer have stamina restrictions, players can play at their own pace. Our goal is to give back control to the players."

It could simply be that Bear and his co-workers have sensed the wind turning against gacha games—mind, Umamusume: Pretty Derby is very popular—but if I shove my inner cynic away for a moment, this does seem like a noble sacrifice. Gacha games are popular because they tend to make money, after all: Boatloads of the stuff.

"After analyzing player data, community feedback, and in-game survey results from the last beta, we realized that the complaints were fairly consistent. 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."

"From a management perspective, our aim is to create a game that can keep running for a long time. 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.

"… In the short term, this means having to give up on some fast monetization opportunities, but in the long term, we believe it will lead to stronger player retention, a better reputation, and a healthier, more sustainable business model."

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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