Top Gacha Rhythm Game PJSK Adds Watch-Ad Rewards to Its High-Revenue JP Server — Players Roast It as a Desperate Cash Grab

A top-tier gacha game pulling in hundreds of millions in revenue is now asking players to sit through ads for in-game rewards — the kind of move you'd expect from bottom-tier mobile shovelware, not a flagship title. Yet here we are, watching Project Sekai's Japanese server do exactly that.

PJSK (Project Sekai: Colorful Stage feat. Hatsune Miku) is SEGA's flagship rhythm gacha game with a massive following and sky-high revenue in Japan. Despite that, the devs are rolling out a daily watch-ad-for-rewards system — a feature that already went live on the global server first.

The original poster found this laughable: the global server has fewer players, so squeezing ad revenue there is somewhat understandable. But the JP server? With its insane revenue numbers? Slapping on an ad system straight out of a budget mobile game is beyond embarrassing. OP's theory? PJSK has a notoriously young playerbase, and SEGA figured out how to extract money from kids who can't afford to whale.

The comment section erupted. One player raged: "Are they insane? A full-client game copying mini-program ad reward tactics?" Another added: "The JP server makes bank — this is shameless. Just rerun limited banners instead, that'd be better than ads."

Not everyone was against it, though. Some pointed out that Monster Strike and Puzzle & Dragons — two of Japan's biggest mobile games — also have built-in ads, so calling it a "cheap game thing" is unfair. One commenter shared from experience: "In PAD I watch two 30-second ads and refill two stamina bars — totally worth it." But even they couldn't resist throwing shade: "PJSK always brags about its JP revenue. Now adding ads too? Kinda cringe."

A particularly insightful comment broke down the business logic: ad revenue goes mostly to the game publisher, bypassing the platform's usual 50-80% cut (which can hit 82%+ for smaller studios). It's essentially free money for SEGA, and the ads aren't forced — players choose to watch. But the commenter also admitted the psychological downside: F2P players will inevitably wonder, "Would my experience be better without this system? Would SEGA just give us more free stuff if ads didn't exist?"

The real tea came from an apparent veteran player who laid out the timeline: after the 2nd anniversary, revenue naturally started declining, and the devs began pulling increasingly desperate moves to squeeze players. Fewer players meant less money, which meant more aggressive tactics — a vicious cycle that led to this ad system fiasco. Their verdict? "This is a game barely 3.5 years old and already a top gacha title. These devs are genuinely shameless." Another commenter piled on, sarcastically comparing it unfavorably to a different character banner spam.

Someone even brought receipts from another Japanese idol gacha game's ad system to make PJSK look even worse — sharing a Bilibili video showing the absurdly flashy animation for an ad-based diamond gacha. Players in the replies exposed the reality: the "jackpot" is virtually impossible to hit, with players getting 10-20 diamonds most of the time, making the whole thing a joke.

One commenter also dropped a spicy aside: the bigger drama from PJSK's latest livestream wasn't even the ads — it was the imbalance in character screen time and singing parts. Looks like the ad system might just be the tip of the iceberg for frustrated fans.