What was once exclusively a device meant to send calls and occasionally listen to music, cell phones in the past decade had turned into a gaming device with thousands of apps for players to engage with. Many console developers have turned to the ever-expanding mobile game market, with one such developer, Square Enix, enjoying a comfortable position among other developers. In Sony’s State of Play earlier this week, Square Enix announced two Final Fantasy 7 mobile titles, Ever Crisis and The First Soldier, a retelling of the main story and a battle royale respectively.
Relating to the announcement of the Final Fantasy 7 mobile titles, a majority of Square Enix’s titles releasing this year are mobile versions of titles such as Just Cause and Dragon Quest Tact. Another mobile game tied to the Dragon Quest franchise, Dragon Quest of the Stars, had been the source of grief involving Square Enix staff receiving death threats from a zealous player.
Yesterday morning, Saitama resident Toshiyuki Kan was arrested following death threats sent to Square Enix last November. Kan had sent a total of thirty-seven threats via the Dragon Quest of the Stars website, citing his frustrations with the game as the motivation behind his actions. Some of the threats are phrases including “Why can’t I win?” and “I’m going to kill the person who [set the game up this way]!” No one was harmed as the police were able to apprehend the suspect before the player had the chance to make true on his threats.
Dragon Quest of the Stars is one of many mobile games that fall under the “gacha” category, a term for games that are pay-to-win by requiring the player to invest a large sum of money to overcome the challenges presented in the game. Gacha games had been the subject of Square Enix’s threats in the past. In 2019, there were two reported incidents of players sending death threats to the company, with one threatening to burn the Square Enix headquarters and another, a nursing care worker, threatening to kill the entire Square Enix staff.
After the horrific events of the Kyoto Animation arson attack in 2019, death and arson threats are taken with extreme severity to prevent another attack on a similar scale. While the addictive nature of gacha games can enable the frustrations of many people who suffer through several bad rolls and an unwinnable boss, game developers have to bear the brunt of abuse and constant death threats as a result of a player’s addiction.
Dragon Quest of the Stars is currently available for Android and iOS devices.
Source: tbs.co.jp
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