Will Zenless Zone Zero Be the Next Genshin Impact?

When it comes to MiHoYo, if you're not a player in the anime gaming community, you might not be familiar with it. However, if we mention "Genshin Impact", you're likely to have some response to it. Regardless of whether you play Genshin Impact or not, you've probably heard its popular Internet catchphrases, indicating the game's immense popularity and worldwide recognition.

Since its establishment in 2014, MiHoYo has released a modest but highly refined selection of games. In 2014, they launched "Honkai Academy 2," followed by "Honkai Impact 3rd" in 2016. The phenomenally successful open-world game "Genshin Impact" debuted four years ago, along with "Tears of Themis" in the same year. Last year, "Honkai: Star Rail" also gained significant popularity.

Despite having only five games, MiHoYo has solidified its position as one of the top three game companies in China, a testament to its remarkable success.

Given MiHoYo's track record of producing popular and high-quality games, the public's expectations for their sixth game, Zenless Zone Zero, are understandably high. As Zenless Zone Zero approaches its public beta, gamers are eager to see if it can continue MiHoYo's legacy of success. To meet these expectations, Zenless Zone Zero must demonstrate exceptional quality and gameplay.

What is Zenless Zone Zero?

As an action-roguelike game, the current closed beta news suggests that Zenless Zone Zero's content is worth the anticipation. Although its battle mechanics might seem "stitched together," they are indeed impressive. The game also features puzzle-solving elements. In terms of storyline, it is relatively better compared to other mobile games but falls short from a PC game perspective.

The overall art style of Zenless Zone Zero is distinct from other MiHoYo games. The game's visuals lean towards a greyish tone with low saturation, giving it a somewhat retro feel. The narrative is delivered through a combination of animations, comics, and dialogues, and the storyline can be rewatched, which is a nice feature.

Zenless Zone Zero's map is not an open-world type like "Genshin Impact" or "Honkai: Star Rail." Instead, the main and side story maps occur within a "television," essentially a "two-dimensional space." This design choice enhances the game's strategic and puzzle-solving elements.

Combat in Zenless Zone Zero features field and character restrictions, with an "enemy locking system" that supports both single and group combat. The dynamic camera movement makes the game accessible for players who might not excel in fast-paced action games, lowering the entry barrier for new players.

Zenless Zone Zero continues MiHoYo's tradition of the gacha system, featuring both a permanent pool and a limited-time pool.

In summary, Zenless Zone Zero inherits many of the strengths of MiHoYo games, including art style, storyline, and combat feel, while also introducing new elements in map design and combat mechanics. However, these impressions are based on the closed beta, and the actual game experience awaits player exploration and feedback.

Can Zenless Zone Zero Become the Next Big Hit?

To address this, let's first look back at "Honkai: Star Rail." This game was positioned as a "secondary game," aimed at attracting players who had moved on from Genshin Impact or were fans of the Honkai series. It perfectly fulfilled its role as a secondary game to Genshin Impact, leveraging the existing player base of MiHoYo's previous titles.

In contrast, Zenless Zone Zero does not align as seamlessly with MiHoYo's current game portfolio. While its action-roguelike genre does not directly compete with Genshin Impact, it lacks the established audience of the Honkai series. Therefore, its success hinges heavily on the game's quality.

With the mobile gaming market already saturated by exploration, narrative, and turn-based games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, the potential audience for action-roguelike games remains uncertain. The answer will become clearer once Zenless Zone Zero launches publicly.

According to Sensor Tower's 2023 annual report on Chinese mobile games overseas, MiHoYo's "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Rail" ranked first and third in revenue, respectively. Notably, "Honkai: Star Rail," which launched in April, became the fastest-growing overseas mobile game in 2023.

Sony has also launched a PS5 Genshin Impact starter pack, and PlayStation has announced continued collaboration with MiHoYo, including offline events and customized DualSense and PlayStation hardware accessories. It's no surprise that some players humorously call Genshin Impact the "flagship game" of the PS5.

The Next "Genshin Impact"

Looking at the Chinese mobile gaming market, three representative games have exploded in popularity and endured over time: "Honor of Kings" (2015), "PUBG Mobile" (2018), and "Genshin Impact" (2020).

As the mobile gaming market rapidly develops, China's vast number of mobile users provides enormous potential. The success of "Honor of Kings" and "PUBG Mobile" is largely due to Tencent's powerful social platform foundation, and both have corresponding globally popular PC game counterparts ("League of Legends" and "PUBG").

However, "Genshin Impact" is different. It did not have a globally popular PC game counterpart at its inception, nor did it have the backing of Tencent's (WeChat and QQ) extensive social platform. It is also a PVE game with minimal social features.

So, how did "Genshin Impact" break through in such a competitive mobile gaming market?

Firstly, the rapid growth of the ACG (Anime, Comic, and Games) community has made this culture increasingly popular among young people. ACG platforms and "Genshin Impact" complement each other, attracting many non-ACG fans, leading to widespread catchphrases and skyrocketing popularity. The ACG genre has always been a weak spot for Tencent and NetEase, leaving "Genshin Impact" without significant domestic competition at the time.

Secondly, MiHoYo invested billions in the development of "Genshin Impact," which objectively excels in music, graphics, modeling, and world-building compared to other domestic games of the same period. It also pioneered cross-platform data connectivity across mobile, PC, and console.

Most importantly, "Genshin Impact" introduced an open-world gameplay mode to the mobile gaming market, which was revolutionary at the time. Before "Genshin Impact," it was challenging for players to experience such an open-world game on mobile devices. The game features a vast map with a high degree of exploration freedom, allowing players to enjoy discovering secrets and interacting with diverse environments.

Conclusion

The success of Genshin Impact demonstrated that a serious approach to game development can yield both fame and fortune. MiHoYo's strategy of "technology first" (developing technology before monetization) has challenged the industry norms set by giants like Tencent and NetEase.

However, Genshin Impact's success is not solely due to high investment, quality production, and innovative gameplay. It also benefited from a unique combination of factors that are hard to replicate. Thus, creating another phenomenon like Genshin Impact is challenging for both MiHoYo and other developers.

Nonetheless, Zenless Zone Zero has the potential to carve out a new niche market with its high-quality production, offering MiHoYo a new avenue for growth.