Nevertheless, Genshin Impact's one-year anniversary is today, September 28, and this review bomb isn't the kind of event that anyone wanted to see, least of all MiHoYo.Google Play has announced the winners of its year-end awards, including users' and editors' picks for the best apps, movies, TV shows and books. Between bot accounts and sheer hyperbole, many of the latest Genshin Impact (and Honkai Impact 3rd) Google Play reviews definitely fit those criteria, so Genshin Impact's store rating will likely recover as flagged reviews are taken down and normal reviews balance things out. Google Play's review policy does notably forbid fake, inaccurate, repeat, and other misleading reviews. The previous video saw 34,000 likes and 2,800 dislikes, for comparison. A new promotional video (opens in new tab) posted by the official Genshin Impact YouTube channel earlier today has also seen an inordinately high number of dislikes, with 87,000 likes and 25,000 dislikes at the time of writing. The game's official Discord, as well as other community apps, are being spammed (opens in new tab) with a despondent sticker emote that's become a symbol of disappointment among players.

Genshin Impact anniversary backlash has reached more than Google Play, too.

According to Google's review policy (opens in new tab), ratings are 'calculated based on the app's current quality ratings from user reviews, rather than the lifetime average value of user reviews, unless the app has very few ratings.' This gives more weight to an app's latest reviews, but while this approach is meant to let ratings reflect how 'apps can change over time, and often add and remove features,' it also makes review bombs like this extremely visible. Another big factor here is Google Play's rating system.

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