It’s been overnight since Granblue Fantasy released results for its Summer Fortune lottery tickets, and it has not been the prettiest sight. To understand the whole issue, let’s start from the beginning.
SUMMER FORTUNE?
Granblue Fantasy started their summer campaign bonuses, one of them being the Summer Fortune cards. Throughout the campaign’s duration, you would get a card each day with three random numbers printed on it.
Winning numbers were announced 16 August 2021, 19:00 JST. If you matched the numbers listed, you were then eligible for prizes, from Tier 1 to Tier 4. In this case, to win a Tier 4 prize, your card needed to end in either a 5 or a 8.
The game also has a clause where the last number on a card can be from 0 to 9, and not repeating until all have been drawn. Despite this, many have reported that they didn’t even get a single Tier 4 prize. For what its worth, the game also gave out 10,000 crystals – equivalent to just over 30 draws – when the results were released.
THE PRIZES
Naturally, a lot of people were especially excited because of the prizes up for grabs. Tier 4 items could be considered mostly negligible, with Tier 3 and above being the greater jackpots. Tier 3 prizes had a selection of weapons of limited units, as well as summons you cannot ordinarily “spark” or claim through regular paid selection tickets. Tier 2 prizes were then limited seasonal units or summons where applicable, including the yearly zodiacs, upgrades for a powerful weapon or enough currency for a “spark”. Tier 1 prizes are ordinarily extremely expensive weapons, or a special ticket that allowed you a selection of anything in the current gacha pool.
For the uninitiated, a “spark” is where you draw 300 times and select a guaranteed item from a featured selection. Naturally, many a tweet has sprung forth from the event.
THE FALLOUT
Saying that many people are having extremely strong feelings is probably putting it lightly. This hashtag ( #グラブル引退) has been dedicated to the post-announcement results. Players have been publicizing trashing their inventory, and / or announcing they were quitting the game. The items they are discarding typically involves a lot of dedicated time, or money. Some people have also been posting a screenshot of CyberAgent’s stock prices falling, of which Cygames is a subsidiary.
It should be noted that the stock prices started falling before the Granblue announcements, though of course, people would be focusing on the nosedive of 16 August.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Well, until a statement has been released, we won’t know how Cygames might try to smooth things over. The various cast or staff around the game haven’t been afforded amazing luck either, so many players are in the same boat.
It might have been better if the scratch cards were used instead. Even if the prize you got wasn’t the most attractive, they did at least guarantee a prize. It seems extreme to be trashing your inventory when you could simply quit the game, but emotional responses are just that: they don’t have to be rational or make sense.
The Summer Fortune campaign may be over, but there’s still time yet in the overall Granblue summer campaign. Let’s see where this ends up.
UPDATED 17 AUGUST 2021, 21:15 JST: Everyone will receive a free Tier 3 prize.