As part of the annual "Lantern Rite festival" event, players will receive a free four-star character from Liyue of their choice, a skin for Xingqiu, and Primogens. Additionally, PS5 console buyers will be gifted a promo code for a free outfit for one of the characters.

Genshin ImpactImage credit: thenerdstash.com

Many Genshin Impact fans were disappointed by the offered gifts, especially in comparison to Honkai: Star Rail, where players were previously given a five-star character for free as a token of gratitude from the developers. Moreover, some fans were upset by the fact that console buyers would receive an exclusive reward, which would not be available to others.

The dissatisfaction led to Chinese Genshin Impact fans massively downrating the game on local platforms and unsubscribing from HoYoverse's social media channels. Within a few days, the number of followers of the Genshin Impact account on Douyin (TikTok) dropped from 9.35 million to 8.41 million.

Genshin ImpactImage credit: pockettactics.com

Players also began unsubscribing from Genshin Impact's partner company accounts. It was noticed that accounts of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Heytea lost subscribers and received many negative comments from upset fans.

After the Genshin Impact account on BiliBili lost followers, an insider under the nickname hxg_diluc noticed a sharp increase in new followers with similar names. He does not rule out that these could be bots, possibly launched to mitigate the negative impact of the players' protest. However, there is no direct confirmation of this.

Main image by ensiplay

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