1 articlesThe developers of Genshin Impact, the Honkai series, and Zenless Zone Zero seem to be going for a new direction. A hiring ad shows that miHoYo are seeking staff to build a realistic fantasy open world MMO on UE5.
This project is most likely very early on in development, so details are few. Nonetheless, we do get a glimpse into what could be one of the biggest style shifts from the company.
A New Style and Direction for miHoYo
As users on ResetEra have pointed out, this bit of news comes from a hiring ad made by the miHoYo Hiring Department.
In it, they showed a small glimpse of a currently unnamed project to recruit new staff. You can see the clip in its entirety above.
While the teaser clip itself is not much to go on, there are a few things worth noting from the hiring ad itself. Mainly, that the game will be using Unreal Engine 5 for its development. For the record, the majority of their games have been developed using the Unity engine instead.
What’s more, miHoYo had also shown an image of an unknown figure fighting a massive manticore-like creature during a recruitment event. This shows a much more realistic fantasy aesthetic, in contrast to the anime-inspired style of their previous games. The style also matches what’s shown on the small teaser video.
If that really is the aesthetic their new game is going for, it makes sense for them to move to UE5. The engine is a better fit for the realistic aesthetic they seem to be going for.
Recruitment Poster Provides Extra Details
Lastly, they also shared a recruitment poster alongside the video. It contains some keywords related to the project and a brief synopsis. As translated by users on ResetEra, they read as follows:
- “Enter a grand fantasy world. Ancient mysteries, evil ghosts and beasts, legendary heroes… Get to know your companions… Restore the collapsed order, end the corrupt contract, and face the impermanent divine will. The journey to uncover the truth is your hero story.”
- [HOYO] New Game <Join us, for Genesis>
- -UE5 Engine
- -Realistic Fantasy Game
- -Open World
- -MMO
- -PvP
- -Artificial Intelligence Stimulated Eco System
- -All-Terrain Battle AI
- -Boss Fight
- -Intellectual NPC
It is worth noting that there are also a few mentions of AI. While it’s hard to tell, it seems to just refer to traditional video game behavior AI. At least, it does not seem to imply the use of AI models, such as genAI.
As noted, the project also plans to feature PvP. This, combined with the MMO tag, sure seems to paint this project as unique for miHoYo. It’s likely not going to be focused on being a single-player story-based game this time around!
It’s very likely that this project is still very far from release, considering they’re just in the hiring phase. Nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see miHoYo try something so different from the games that have made them known worldwide.
