When the gacha sport Genshin Influence was initially unveiled to the world, there have been quite a lot of comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Some even accused it of being a “clone” of Hyperlink’s new open-world journey.
Now, quite a few years later, after the sport has raked in billions, miHoYo’s president Lie Wei mirrored on this stage of the sport’s life, on the newest ‘Genshin Influence FES’ occasion – noting how proud the crew was when it initially launched the closed beta, however the suggestions and “misunderstandings” ultimately had some colleagues in tears.
Though Zelda wasn’t particularly talked about, Wei made reference to the early phases of the venture’s reveal – calling it an “unprecedented disaster”. As you would possibly keep in mind, a Zelda fan on the time of the reveal went to the extent of smashing a PlayStation 4 in protest of Genshin Influence’s similarities. This is what Wei stated, based mostly on a tough translation by @tokinohikaru_00 on Twitter (through Nintendo Every thing):
“Once I put out the closed beta I used to be fairly proud, stuffed with hope and considering we did properly however the closed beta’s response is, it’s prefer it’s completely different from our assumptions, it’s utterly completely different. So once we did the closed beta we confronted an unprecedented disaster. Everybody simply noticed the video of the closed beta and stated, ‘we don’t actually perceive what Genshin is attempting to do.’ Not many understood, and there have been quite a lot of misunderstandings. So on the time, in our crew, everybody was actually anxious. I keep in mind many younger colleagues crying and saying to me, ‘Why is that this occurring? What did we do incorrect?’ However this youthful innocence – you could possibly say we’re fearless. We thought and acted.”
Developer miHoYo beforehand admitted it took inspiration from Breath of the Wild, however has at all times insisted it was a “very completely different” expertise. And though it wasn’t a really nice expertise main as much as the sport’s launch and within the earlier years, Genshin Influence has gone on to develop into a reside service powerhouse, raking in insane quantities of cash.
As for the promised Change launch, it is seemingly gone lacking in motion. An replace relationship again to Could final 12 months steered the venture was nonetheless in improvement for Nintendo’s hybrid platform, however since then there have not been any updates. A hearsay in 2021 steered this model could have encountered some technical points.