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New Gacha Game Rated 2.2/10 Amidst Unfair Rate Accusations

93 View2023-03-31

The 3D battleship-themed mobile game Velvet Code, which features anime-style girls who personify naval vehicles, has become embroiled in controversy. Players believed there was an obvious difference in gacha rates between different regions, making it much harder for Chinese server players to acquire SSR characters. At the time of writing, the game's rating has plummeted to 2.2/10 on Bilibili due to the review bombing.

The backlash against Velvet Code was further fueled by rumors that the developer of Velvet Code anonymously filed a complaint with Chinese regulators against Azur Lane, a rival game, forcing Azur Lane to modify numerous historical battleship names as a response.

After these rumors began to circulate, the developer of Velvet Code issued statements to address the gacha rate differences and refute the accusations of unfair competition.

Velvet Code's rating on Bilibili dropped to 2.2/10 as players bombarded the game with negative feedback.

Velvet Code began development in 2020 by 9You and obtained a game license from the NPPA regulators on August 21st of the same year. However, due to development delays and a change in publisher, the game's early-access style, “Open Beta”, did not begin until March 16th of this year.

As people began playing, they quickly found that the Japanese version of the game had a 5% SSR rate, with a guaranteed SSR character within 30 pulls. In contrast, the Chinese server had a lower SSR rate of 2% and guaranteed an SSR character only after 80 pulls.

Bilibili video creators compared the gacha rates of Velvet Code between the Japanese and Chinese versions.

While the differing gacha rates may not necessarily disadvantage Chinese players in terms of other resource and character acquisition strategies, some players remain suspicious of potential mistreatment due to the importance of gacha in obtaining characters.

On March 17th, the developer of Velvet Code admitted that the rates on the two servers are not the same.

But they responded by stating that the Chinese server will introduce unique gameplay features in the future, which the global versions will not have access to. They expressed gratitude towards player feedback and promised to implement optimization updates accordingly.

Bilibili video creators compared the gacha rates of Velvet Code between the Japanese and Chinese versions.

On March 21st, the developer made a second response, stating that “The Chinese server provides players with more ways to acquire resources and introduces more powerful battleship characters in the main storyline. Multiple ways to obtain the versatile character ‘Nya’ have been implemented to facilitate players in making breakthroughs in the progression. The developer hopes that players will enjoy the process of ‘catching’ characters rather than simply obtaining them with one click after spending money. Therefore, different operational strategies have been adopted.”

9You made a second statement regarding the varying gacha rates of Velvet Code.

Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, another rumor emerged during this crisis of trust. Players have speculated that the reason character names were revised in Azur Lane recently is because of a report by Velvet Code to the regulators.

According to reports, the game's server crashed during the initial days of the open test, and as a form of compensation, officials offered players 600 diamonds per day for a week. However, some fans viewed this amount as laughable, as not only could little be done with that quantity, but it also coincided with the cost of changing a battleship's name in Azur Lane, further still adding fuel to the rumors.

On March 28th, 9You denied the rumors they “stabbed a rival in the back”, and that they engaged in "unfair competition and malicious reporting".

Statement made by 9You denying further rumors on March 28th

Although the developer of Velvet Code has issued official responses to address the controversies, it may take time to fully resolve the issue, leaving the future of the game uncertain.

This situation shows how the perception of unfair treatment to different parts of a community can undermine trust in a game company. Once that is lost, people can easily believe wrongdoing in other areas. 9You lost the trust of their players, and if the 2.2 rating is any indicator, their efforts so far have fallen far short of winning them back.

Source: TapTap

A gacha game with lots of content and cute graphics especially the UI. The game is quite difficult to understand especially the blood types and the gacha rates are horrible.Also, there are still untranslated chinese languages in the game. Overall, the game is great and deserves a 5 star rating. I really hope that we can keep the data from the CBT. 😥😥😥

Acidwire1K2021-12-30

Very good game ( Beta test review )

Yo this game is good . The CG Animated for skill use of the Character is very beautiful and well done . Althrough they only have a few SSR ( Legendary/Gold ) , SR ( Epic/Purple ) , and maybe 1 or 2 R ( Rare/Blue) character skill to be animated, since the game is still in Beta Test, and will have more CG later on , so looking forward to that . But in my opinion the current BEST Girl with the CG in Beta is Snezhana 👌.

V.T8622022-07-21

#MostVisuallyStunningGame

Great game in all aspects F2p friendly Gacha rates quite high for players to get the characters easily. Very rewarding missions. Awesome events and rewards. Beautifully created story. Most of all it also teaches about the history of the ships. Skins can be easily obtained on events.Simple war mechanics easy for players to understand. I've been playing this game for past 2 years and yet i haven't encountered anything that would make me disappointed rather it amazes me that the devs are active and listen to player's demands.

No lIfE GaMEr8792022-09-21