Genshin Impact Wants You To Design a Bus (No, Seriously)

Popular gacha role-playing game Genshin Impact is celebrating its first anniversary this September, and recently announced it will commemorate the milestone by hosting a publicity bus design competition. Nearly a year ago, Genshin Impact experienced one of the most profitable launches of any mobile game; topping Pokemon GO, Fortnite, and PUBG Mobile by raking in $245 million just a month after its release.

As of February, Genshin Impact had around 40 million players across all of its devices, with no sign of that number getting any smaller as the game completes its first trip around the sun. Its popularity seems to manifest in ways beyond just the game’s number of players, though – this past July, Genshin Impact had to open another Discord server after its original one hit maximum capacity. Its second server saw over 53,000 fans join in just a few hours after its opening, and currently boasts over 243,000 members. For its upcoming anniversary celebration, it appears Genshin Impact wants to include some of its devoted followers in the festivities.

Genshin Impact recently released the details for its publicity bus design event, a competition where players (aptly referred to as “Travelers” in the official post) are tasked with creating the visuals for a bus advertising the game’s first anniversary. The design must be 4,800 by 2,700 pixels and 300 dpi in resolution, and submissions need to be entered by both email and a Twitter post. Genshin Impact’s announcement specified that the competition’s invitation is from Paimon, the player’s devoted companion throughout Genshin Impact’s story, and that she will have “some great prizes” for those selected as winners. The prizes are both real-life and in-game rewards, ranging from various Apple devices to thousands of Primogems and more. The grand prize involves putting a selected design on a real vehicle that “will appear in some corner of the world” in the future.

Genshin Impact has a few different celebrations planned for its anniversary, such as an upcoming orchestral concert and some commemorative in-game rewards. That being said, some players are disappointed by Genshin Impact’s anniversary rewards, with many taking to Reddit to express anger over what they consider to be scant offerings. The game’s one-year celebration includes the opportunity to claim up to 10 Intertwined Fate (an in-game gacha currency) and other resources by participating in a daily login event, as well as the resetting of their Double Crystal top-up bonus. These features fall short of fans’ expectations for such an important milestone in the game’s history, especially when previous Genshin Impact events – like the Lantern Rite – saw comparatively more impressive rewards.

Genshin Impact’s publicity bus design competition is undoubtedly a unique way to celebrate its upcoming anniversary. However, it doesn’t compensate for the lacking in-game rewards. Given such rewards can be widely enjoyed among its millions of players – unlike a bus competition that sees only a handful of winners – Genshin Impact should probably put more energy towards in-game commemorative features for its one-year milestone.

Genshin Impact is available on PS5, PS4, PC, iOS, and Android.

Source: Genshin Impact, miHoYo

About The Author