“Thank you for the outstanding team at miHoYo for creating an immersive fantasy world for every user on the App Store!” Apple CEO Tim Cook recently took the time during a busy schedule in Shanghai to visit a young gaming company, miHoYo, and shared this tweet after his visit.
In the globally popular gaming phenomenon, miHoYo, through digital technology, has created a world filled with Eastern charm, “Li Yuè,” in their game, “Genshin Impact.” Traditional Chinese attire with embroidered garments, melodious Chinese operas, and misty green landscapes imbued with ethereal atmosphere captivate players worldwide.
The recently released “Digital China Construction Overall Layout Plan” emphasizes building a confident and prosperous digital culture. Led by miHoYo and other Chinese IP companies, games serve as a medium to create a virtual universe rich in Eastern and traditional connotations, utilizing innovative digital technologies to promote the flourishing of Chinese excellent traditional culture.
Entering miHoYo Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., one sees young faces focused on optimizing the virtual characters on their computers using professional tools. Young vitality is one of miHoYo’s most distinctive features. In December 2011, three graduate students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, including Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, and Luo Yuhao, developed the company’s first game, “Fly Me to the Moon,” in their dormitory, marking the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. After a period of preparation, in September 2020, “Genshin Impact,” developed by miHoYo, became a global hit, earning $245 million in its first month and becoming the highest-grossing mobile game in the world that month. It has since remained the top-grossing Chinese mobile game for several consecutive months. Currently, “Genshin Impact” has been translated into over a dozen languages, reaching over 200 countries and regions, and won the Apple “Best iPhone Game of the Year” award in 2020.
Third-party monitoring data estimates that miHoYo generated approximately 10 billion yuan in global revenue in 2022 from Apple’s iPhone and iPad platforms, ranking third globally in terms of annual revenue on the iOS platform. “Genshin Impact” accounts for about 90% of the company’s income.
“Currently, overseas market revenue has already accounted for half of miHoYo’s overall income,” said Liu Wei, founder of miHoYo. “The company’s rapid development over the past decade has been largely driven by the deep exploration of the cultural attributes of products, with the creation of an entire chain of animation, games, music, and merchandise around core IPs to provide a fully immersive fantasy world for global players.”
The game’s storyline takes place in the fantasy world of “Teyvat,” where seven countries each have their own beauty and coexist harmoniously. “Li Yuè,” with Chinese-inspired prototypes, is undoubtedly the most Eastern in terms of charm and has garnered the most global fan attention. The development team has meticulously integrated rich cultural details into the game, with its “backstory” narrated in the traditional Chinese storytelling style. A single promotional video has garnered over 20 million views overseas.
On the other hand, innovation in science and technology (sci-tech) is also a significant aspect of miHoYo. “We use high-tech methods to develop games, and all details are strictly maintained to achieve the highest quality,” Liu Wei said.
Some data can reveal miHoYo’s commitment to “hard sci-tech.” Currently, the company’s R&D personnel make up over 70% of its workforce, and the percentage of self-developed patents in cloud gaming technology exceeds 99%. miHoYo has established multiple computing centers across the country and holds over a hundred patents in fields such as cartoon rendering technology and motion capture digital technology.
Hard sci-tech brings hard power. Apple views “Genshin Impact” as one of the benchmarks for testing the quality of its hardware. Previously, to showcase the powerful performance of the new iPad Air’s M1 chip, Apple demonstrated the exquisite and smooth game scenes from “Genshin Impact.”