Wuthering Waves’ Swift Response To Feedback Truly Deserves Applause, Unlike Genshin

It’s been close to 4 years since Genshin Impact, yet the revolutionary gacha games’ popularity hasn’t died down. It was a worldwide phenomenon when it launched, and let the niche gacha genre out for the world to see. It was only a matter of time before this mainstream success was replicated, and soon, a very good-looking competitor surfaced. Promising an action combat unlike any other gacha game, Wuthering Waves is out now, albeit with a rough start.

Wuthering Waves’ Rocky Launch

After seeing all its leaks and the closed beta footage showcasing the exquisite combat, I’ll be honest, I was immediately captivated by it. A combat system this creative is very rare in games like this, and Wuthering Waves promised greatness. Now that the game is out, that aspect hasn’t changed, but there were certain other, inescapable flaws in the game.

The quality of the story, mechanics, etc. is a whole different debate, and not my topic today. What I wish to highlight is the botched state in which the game launched. Wuthering Waves had over 30 million people pre-registered, eagerly waiting to give it a try, however, it seems that was too much for the game to handle. Right on launch, it suffered from massive latency issues across all servers, consistent disconnections, and forced logouts.

Being an online game, I don’t think I need to tell you how frustrating this point is, especially since your connection is perfectly fine, it’s the game that’s acting up. These connection issues and the insanely high ping soured the experience of many initial players.

Another very frustrating problem that plagued Wuthering Waves’ launch was the game-breaking performance and optimization flaws. The performance on release day was all over the place. Some people had no issues, while a majority reported frequent crashes, frame rate playing tricks on them, and the game’s insane struggle even on high-end devices. Whatever quality the game offered, it didn’t matter if it was nigh unplayable.

Just hear the hits
byu/Dainuso_Kun inWutheringWaves

The Devs’ Consistent Support Was Genuinely Shocking

However, what followed this is absolutely shocking, to say the least. I mean this in a good way. Of course, I expected a response, but not this swiftly. Wuthering Waves dev Kurogames soon issued an official statement, acknowledging the broken state of the game, apologizing for this mess, and vowing to fix it all. As they say, the first step to fixing a mistake is accepting you made one.

Dear Rovers,
Wuthering Waves has officially launched worldwide, and we are immensely grateful for the support of our players. We have identified some issues that have impacted your gaming experience and are now actively working on solutions. We are committed to constant…

— Wuthering Waves (@Wuthering_Waves) May 23, 2024

To my surprise, Kurogames took this promise very seriously, something I’m not accustomed to seeing these days. Whenever a broken game like this releases, it takes a long time to rescue it from this pit. Kurogames, however, fixed it all in a very short span of 2-3 days. Can you believe that?

The game started receiving updates one after the other. The servers were stabilized, and the high ping issues were effectively removed. Moreover, the game’s performance today is night and day from the launch day. But wait, that’s not all. People who started playing the game immediately issued their feedback regarding certain features, and that feedback was implemented almost instantly.

I sincerely hope Kurogames/Wuwa face massive success after all this
byu/Affectionate_Key82 inWutheringWaves

As if that wasn’t respectable enough, they issued appropriate compensation in the form of in-game rewards for all this mess. Not only did we get a much more stable game in only 3 days, but a handsome reward, too.

In my opinion, Wuthering Waves launched a little too early. It succumbed to the pressure somehow, I don’t know the details, but this was a rushed launch no matter how you see it. At least they owned up to it and fixed things, which is beyond commendable, but the bad reputation could’ve been avoided altogether with a little more polish before launch.

Genshin’s General Apathy

Now, for a moment, let’s take a look at the massive game Wuthering Waves released as a competitor to. I’m not here to defame one and promote the other, or compare the contents of the two games. For now, let’s just look at the respect for the fans’ wishes and the willingness to bring a change and accept your flaws.

Genshin Impact has been going strong for close to 4 years, yet how often has the game implemented feedback from the fans? I’ve been playing the game since day one, and trust me, there are certain features and updates we’ve grown tired of asking for, yet the devs refuse to implement them. Forget any rewards or compensation, we never even got a desired update all these years.

My interpretation of the “content drought” players are experiencing. Some people don’t understand the context so they bash others who are expressing their concerns.
byu/Khid1roso inGenshin_Impact

Instead, all the QoL features and feedback from Genshin somehow get implemented in Honkai: Star Rail instead. Do the devs have a favorite child? Or is it that they have such an overwhelming monopoly that their confidence is absolute people will never leave no matter what we do; we set the rules, not them?

And when that monopoly was even slightly disturbed by Wuthering Waves’ growing popularity, they immediately took action. After 4 years, Genshin decided to add a Resin extension, something fans have been asking for since the first month. However, Wuthering Waves’ botched launch means Hoyoverse once again has the benefit of “nothing can touch Genshin.”

Increased Original Resin Cap and Optimized Artifact Custom Configurations | Developers Discussion 05/22/2024
byu/genshinimpact inGenshin_Impact

This is all the more reason why I’m rooting for Wuthering Waves. If it continues to improve and deliver gestures like this that respect its player base, Genshin will be forced to do the same, whether it likes it or not.