What’s Up with Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, the Game Taking Over the Internet?
You’ve likely heard of the anime horse girl gacha game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby that has taken the internet by storm. If you’ve used any social media over the last couple of weeks, there’s a very good chance you’ve seen screenshots or videos from the game—or at least people talking about it. Why did it get so popular, so suddenly, though?
Globally released in late June, the game is about training a selection of cute anime girls with horse ears and bushy tails to compete in races (they run two-legged, which I have mixed feelings about). The cast of horse girls are based off of real racing horses, mostly from Japan, and the still-living ones are enjoying newfound fame from the game. Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is successful in the gacha game genre, which are generally free-to-play games that incentivize players to use in-game currency for improving or progressing gameplay. Gacha games are known for employing addictive tactics such as providing intermittent free “pulls” to encourage players to spend money, limiting the availability of desired drops to encourage impulse purchases, and elaborate conversions for in-game currency to obscure costs.
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