Idk about ZZZ, but Genshin had that controversy with a lot of their voice actors.

The old voice actor for Tighnari was using his role to have sex with underage fans, for example.

Anything recent is out of my road house because I stopped playing the games awhile ago, but I remember a few.

Star Rail released a character named Sparkle with a psychedelic music video trailer that was basically a one-for-one shot copy of another music video. Supposedly the artist of the original music video was okay with it and it was assumed to just be a fun homage, but it's still pretty gross of Hoyo to take so heavily like that from another creative project without any credit.

Everything else I have to say is from Genshin because it's the only one I played for any substantial length of time.

Earlier in Genshin's life cycle, a character named Zhongli was released in a very weak state. This frustrated players, largely the Chinese player base but not exclusively, because Zhongli was a very obviously Chinese coded character who was the god of the Chinese inspired nation. This led to Hoyo buffing the character. This seems like kind of a nothing burger now but was a big deal at the time. This is a really solid post that breaks down a lot of what was going on here- https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/k9fcu7/video_game_zhongligate_or_how_one_gacha_character/ this was one of. if not the first "major" controversy Hoyo was involved in in its modern state (as in, post Genshin's explosion in popularity).

The first anniversary event in Genshin had pretty lacking rewards, you got one 10- pull, a handful of farmable resources, and anything further was rewards for out of game contest events. I think I remember there being some sort of special purchasable package with some anniversary inspired cosmetic glider that Hoyo decided to give to players for free to smooth things over.

Natlan's release and subsequent patches were basically one big controversy tbh lol. A lot of people were upset that the nation that was supposed to be African inspired had character no darker than Nesquik power. A lot of people were upset that the region itself seemed to be a low technology/eco-utopia setting, while the premium release characters had advanced technology like DJ tables, flying guns, and a motorcycle. A lot of people were upset that the region introduced more difficult terrain to traverse while locking the most interesting/fast/fun options to traverse that terrain behind the gacha 5 star characters. I think this is also where most if not all of the voice actor strike occurred (a controversy which I am sure you are already intending to include and have already researched because it's like the main one lol).

I don't know how much of this happens anymore, but back when Genshin was still young, Hoyo outsourced a lot of its ads and those companies wound up making REALLY gross ads. One I remember was advertising the hang out feature as if it were a dating feature, and the characters the ad focused on were the child characters (Klee, Diona, Qiqi, etc).

The old voice actor for Tighnari did some weird predatory shit, using his status as a voice actor for the game to get into peoples' DMs. He got fired and replaced.

I vaguely remember some issue with the voice actor for one of the male characters being made uncomfortable because of his reaction to fan art or something but I really don't remember the specifics. I want to say the character was Childe but I could be wrong.

Hope that helps get you started.

i don’t know of any specific controversies but i think gacha games are inherently problematic by creating systems designed to target people predisposed to gambling addictions and having a high amount of daily systems with their own dedicated chores designed to turn the game into a habit that shows you multiple “go to store” buttons every day while you waste time giving your characters +5% crit chance or some other menial buff that could’ve been rolled into one of the other 20 systems.

only controversy i can think of thats not the community acting like morons is the fact that all of the english voice actors from the CBT got changed for the final release because they changed studios. and a couple of current voice actors got replaced for just... not showing up to the studio. for months.

Some voice actor stuff One time a guy apparently tried to stab one of the devs because hinkai impact 3rd region locked a bunny suit skin Voice actor strikes... Can't think of anything super serious aside from that

The digging mini-game has an achievement called “Free Digger” for reaching 200-300m depth… the digging minigame has nothing to do with freedom or the like and using Free alongside it makes it uncomfortably close to a certain quip..

.. Ben Biggers character profile is brought into suspicion with this, with “IGGER” being what you see due to his character covering the name.

The TGA 2022 incident where Genshin fans and Sonic fans harassed and talked trash about each other, fighting for the Player's Voice Award. Regardless of how you feel about either game, it was not okay and it wouldn't surprise me if that's why Geoff Keighley has passed on nominating Sonic X Shadow Generations last year and Sonic Movie 3 for this year(it came out in December 2024, so it was eligible for nomination).

I think the saddest part about it is that, when Genshin won, all that fandom got was I think, like, 5 free pulls, iirc.

As a Zenless player, I genuinely can't think of any controversies that are specific to Zenless rather than inherent to the genre.

Genshin though? Oh boy

Look up 'Gooner 9/11'.

Not sure if this was ever big enough to really be considered a "controversy," but the whole Lucia redesign fiasco was the most pissed off I'd ever seen the ZZZ fandom.

Sorry for the incoming wall of text, but I like to be thorough.

We were going through the usual cycle: Drip marketing was out, Lucia made her first in game appearance during the wish bottle event, and we were only a few weeks out from the update. Players were split on her design, with many poking fun at her... let's just say Mewtwo-esque proportions. But a lot of us were just happy that the design was unique, with the horns, the long ears, and particularly that we finally had an adult woman with a smaller chest after all the big tiddy waifus and borderline children. Also the underboob window if you were into that.

Meanwhile the CN side was a lot more negative. There were a lot of different opinions being thrown around, but the common complaint was that her hips were too wide compared to her chest. Some suggested they shrink the hips, others wanted them to make the chest bigger. There was a fan render going around that basically gave her huge boobs and cleavage that got a lot of likes, but it's unclear if anyone was actually taking it seriously.

Anyway, the CBT got updated and the first change got leaked. All they did was adjust the oufit a bit and slightly shrink her hips. A bit disappointing for people who liked that, but it was whatever. Quick note: there were a lot of posts claiming they made the chest bigger in this update, but that was just an optical illusion from the outfit adjustments.

But then out of nowhere there's another update. And this time, they COMPLETELY overhauled the design. They shrank her ears and horns while drastically inflating her boobs. To top it all off, her outift is almost a carbon copy of Yixuan's. Eerily similar to that fan render I mentioned before. People complained and flooded Hoyo woth feedback forms, but when the livestream came it was clear that they were sticking to it. Not helped by all of the art being hastily painted over the original design, with the old proportions still intact. Or how during the stream they made a point to mention how "different" she looks from the other characters. It was clear the whole thing was super last minute.

So obviously anyone who liked the original design was pissed. It felt like the ultimate proof that only CN feedback matters and that they'll change anything at the drop of a hat if they think they'll lose money. Lest we forget what happened to TV mode. It also pretty much dashed all hope of any body type diversity in the future.

Personally, I straight up quit the game over this shit. I was drawn in at launch by the flashy and unique character designs, but it felt like I was watching them literally sell their souls for profit. But that's just how gacha games are, I guess.

TL;DR they drastically changed Lucia's design and proportions before her update because some CN players didn't like it, and western players felt like their opinion didn't matter.