![]() If the game teaches us anything about the future of Chinese cultural production, it is that, at least in this sector, technical excellence may make up for the lack of pure originality. When it comes to game development - the attention to detail, the depth of characters, the intricate storylines, along with a dedicated and ambitious staff - Genshin is a tour de force. “It’s just a really well-polished game and it clearly took them a lot of money and time to get there.” ![]() Liu praised Genshin’s fluid gameplay and other technical achievements as particular standouts. Very few games allow for full cross-platforming, at least between mobile and PC,” said Johnny Liu, a game developer formerly at NetEase. “The amount of work it takes to do a cross-platform game is incredibly, incredibly hard. It has also gone a step further by being simultaneously released on PC, PS4, and other consoles. Everything from the role-playing gaming genre to the open-world concept to its seamless play across various platforms has been done before, but MiHoYo turned up all the dials, combining these elements into something bordering perfection. Gaming analysts told The China Project that Genshin’s appeal lies not so much in its novelty, but in its execution. (The company didn’t respond to a request for an interview.) For Genshin Impact, MiHoYo’s developers drew much inspiration from another Japanese smash hit: Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild. Cai has admitted that girls were “an important element” in his games, given his target demographic. MiYoHo’s motto is “tech otakus save the world,” and the company’s first hit game, Guns Girl - Honkai Gakuen, is chock-full of steamy anime characters of the female variety. “Otaku” refers to the quintessentially hermetic fanboy of Japanese anime culture or the ACG genre (an acronym for anime, comics, games), which has become immensely popular in China’s coastal cities like Shanghai. Its Shanghai-based developer, MiHoYo, was founded in 2012 by a self-styled “otaku” named Cài Hàoyǔ 蔡浩宇. Unlike martial arts or Chinese cuisine, Genshin is not your typical Chinese export. Users amass a party of scantily-clad girls and steely-eyed boys, each with unique skills and magical abilities. Genshin Impact is set in the mountainous planet of Teyvat, an anime fairyland of immaculate rivers, deep ravines, and lush flora, and home to plenty of wackable, loot-bearing fauna. ![]() With a strong technical team, deep pockets, and redoubled overseas ambitions, Chinese games may mark a new frontier in the country’s efforts to influence global culture. But Genshin Impact - which averages 9 million players a day, more than half of which live in the U.S., Japan, and countries in Southeast Asia - is a surprising exception. Meanwhile, China’s neighbors, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, each boast an enormous foreign fanbase eager to consume their music, movies, and TV shows. While some say much of that money is earned through controversial means - a payment mechanism akin to a slot machine - there’s no denying that Genshin Impact has set a new standard for what a mobile game can be.Ĭhina has historically produced very few global hits from its culture factory despite heavy investment and rising economic clout. In its first year, Genshin became the fourth-highest grossing game worldwide, generating $3.7 billion in revenue and surpassing such legendary titles as Fortnite and Pokemon Go. ![]() Two months after its release in September 2020, the title won the “game of the year” award on both Apple and Google Play. Genshin Impact, an open-world role-playing game out of China, has become the most successful title of Chinese origin on global markets to date.
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