Due to government rulings, Genshin Impact players in the US will now need to verify their age or risk losing access to their account forever.
A recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruling concluded that the juggernaut gacha game is “misleading” children over the true cost of its characters.
For those of you who don’t play, you need to spend a virtual currency in order for a “chance” to unlock rare 5-Star characters. However, the probability of getting the promoted avatar is only 100% after you’ve pulled 180 times, which costs 28,800 Primogems.
However, there’s a 50% chance you’ll get the character after pulling 90 times (14,400 Primogems) – and there’s always a small percentage chance you’ll get lucky and unlock them sooner.
You can earn Primogems through gameplay, but just to put the pricing into context, a bundle of 6,480 Genesis Crystals (which can be converted 1:1 with Primogems) costs $99.99/£87.99, excluding any top-up bonuses. That means, at absolute worst, you could be looking at a cost of up to $400 per promoted character.
While maker HoYoverse ultimately disagreed with the FTC’s ruling, it settled for $20 million and made the following commitment: “Under the agreement, we will introduce new age-gate and parental consent protections for children and young teens and increase our in-game disclosures around virtual currency and rewards for players in the US in the coming months.”
And that action is now coming into effect, as beginning 20th May, 2025, all existing players in the US will need to verify their age. It’s unclear whether this will simply require entering your birthdate, or if you’ll need to supply actual ID, but we imagine it’ll be the former.