Summary
Highly successful game developer HoYoverse plans to produce anime adaptations of Genshin Impact and other games, likely excluding its previously announced partnership with ufotable. With multimedia promotion experience and government support, HoYoverse aims to turn Shanghai into a film production hub, heralding a future of Chinese-made Genshin and Honkai adaptations. While details remain unclear, HoYoverse has the means and motivation to create films based on its popular game properties, potentially reshaping the anime adaptation landscape in the industry.
Despite previous promises that anime studio ufotable would adapt the extremely popular video game. Genshin Impact, reports about China's filmmaking ambitions suggest that game developer, HoYoverse, intends to produce Genshin and its other games in-house. This created an atmosphere of doubt as to whether cooperation would occur. However, it is natural, perhaps even expected, that the Chinese entertainment giant would produce its own cartoons.
According to a post on X relaying Chinese news, HoYoverse, formerly miHoYo, expressed strong interest in making animated films based on its properties to promote the Shanghai film industry. Although nothing concrete has been announced yet, it is certainly within the capabilities of the Chinese company as they have both the experience and capital to make this a reality.
If fans see a Genshin movie in the future, it will most likely be made in China and not handled by a Japanese animation studio like ufotable.
The rise of HoYovers and the ufotable project
Genshin's overwhelming success facilitated sponsorship
HoYoverse began operations as the game development company miHoYo in 2011. Although it has produced many different games, Its most successful products are the games in the Genshin and Honkai series, such as Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai: Star Rail. All three games achieved international success and have strong fan bases. In particular, Genshin, a live-service open-world game, massively boosted the company's profits and broad appeal, and may be its most popular property. With its presence in the anime and gaming industry, it was only natural that HoYoverse would consider creating an adaptation.
In 2022, HoYovers announced that ufotable would adapt Genshin and revealed an animated trailer depicting scenes from the original game. The studio, known for producing high-quality adaptations of both Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and many other Fate works, seemed like a match made in heaven. However, Both sides are silent on the project's current progress. Then, adding to the uncertainty of the partnership was a post by “Windvally” (@windwally_quark), a self-described “Chinese gamer and news editor” on X. It alleged duplication. news originally posted on China's WeChat, describing plans to transform Shanghai into a modern city. film making center.
According to Windvally, the Shanghai Film Bureau has talked to many entertainment and game businesses, including HoYoverse. The company expressed its desire to “promote the transformation of the company's two original best-selling game IPs, Genshin Impact and Honkai, into films,” while the Film Department pledged to “help HoYoverse better participate in transforming Shanghai Hai becomes the center of film creativity. According to Windvally,
“HoYoverse has the backing of Shanghai City and the Party to develop both Genshin and Honkai into anime, possibly even several movies in the future.”
The revelation of HoYovers' intention to produce their own anime raises doubts about the old plan related to ufotable. In all respects, it is the right and ability to handle the assets of HoYovers. That will be a boost to Chinese companies' pride in improving local industry, and Shanghai will also reap the rewards – a win-win.
While there has been no official confirmation of the impossibility of a collaboration, it wouldn't make much sense to divide Genshin into a Japanese anime and a Chinese film. One implication of the radio silence is that HoYoverse is trying to quietly back away from the project to announce entirely new films in the future.
HoYoverse has more filmmaking possibilities
The company has an experienced and highly effective communications department
HoYoverse also didn't go into the movie business completely blindly. If anything, it's a logical development in its business. Although its main product is games, its direct service models mean that all Genshin and Honkai products are supported by a massive multimedia system designed to promote them. HoYoverse has begun work on anime for Honkai Impact 3rd, producing Cooking with Valkyries, a series of comedic shorts. Meanwhile, Genshin's official YouTube channel recently uploaded the animated short film The Song Burning in the Embers, entirely dedicated to promoting the next upcoming character. The only step the company has not yet taken is full-scale anime production.
That being said, ufotable tuning is still possible until an official announcement. While it makes logistical sense for HoYoverse to handle a Genshin anime from start to finish, and thus cancel an old project and prevent a conflict of interest, there's nothing off the table for now. Additionally, although HoYoverse has the means to create a feature film, it is still ambitious and still in the research phase.
These hypothetical movies will presumably follow different story lines of the game. As an open-world game, Genshin has many story-driven missions, although its most important missions are the “Archon Missions,” which are major isolated storylines tied to the seven countries in the fictional world of Teyvat. Therefore, a movie can be suitable for one country, with a duration of 2-3 hours being enough to summarize the events of the mission. HoYoverse's other properties, Honkai: Star Rail and Honkai Impact, could also easily be adapted into movies as they also have a series of interconnected but still self-contained stories.
Whatever final form these game adaptations will take is yet to air. But what is certain is that the company wants films based on Genshin and Honkai to be made. Starting with the complex in-game cutscenes for Honkai Impact 3rd, before trying out the basic but functional comedy extravaganza, the original ufotable announcement in 2022, and now the official short film recently released, HoYovers has been testing the idea for a long time. Only this time, it has government support to make something happen.
Shanghai calls the film project a “three-year plan”, which means there could be quite a while before production on the first film begins and long after the game's seven-nation storyline concludes. But whether it will become a Japanese or Chinese-led production, it seems only a matter of time before the extremely wealthy and experienced HoYovers finally realize their dream. Genshin Impact project becomes a reality.
Source: Windvally (X account)