HoYoverse Unveils AI-Powered Fantasy MMO 'Genesis' Built on Unreal Engine 5

miHoYo releases first tease for new Unreal Engine 5 fantasy MMO, and yes, it uses AI

miHoYo, the developer behind Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and other gacha titles, has released a teaser video for its upcoming Unreal Engine 5 project. It's a fantasy MMO which, you guessed it, makes use of AI. Spotted by users on ResetEra, miHoYo's hiring department posted a video and additional project information on Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social media platform). The post lists out a number of key quirks of the game, including MMO, PvP, Open World, "Artificial Intelligence Stimulated Eco System", All-Terrain Battle AI, and "Intellectual NPC". It's worth noting that these are translated, and therefore the exact wording must be taken with a grain of salt. However, it does provide some manner of insight into one of miHoYo's big upcoming projects. First of all, one immediate thing one can see from the post is that the aesthetic of this mysterious new project isn't miHoYo's typical anime style. Instead, you see the obvious marks of Unreal Engine 5. What might raise an eye brow is the mention of AI there, which miHoYo has used in the past in Zenless Zone Zero to "smoothen" the development process. The company has previous drawn a line in the sand when it comes to AI art and voicework, and claimed it had AI voice protections in its contracts when a contract dispute led to the recasting of SAGAFTRA members. This post appears to indicate a continuation of miHoYo's approach to AI in game development, though obviously the full extent of its use remains unclear. We don't know the name of the game, when it'll be coming out, what the gameplay will actually look like... It's a big question mark over the company's line-up at the moment. What isn't a mystery are some of the other games miHoYo is working on, including a monster-collection game called Honkai: Nexus Anima. For now, we'll have to just hunker down and wait for more information as to this new project.

Genshin Impact dev seemingly ditching anime art to take on the MMO money pit with a new game called Genesis packing an open world, PvP, and a whole load of AI

Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse has yet another game in the works. After creature-collector strategy game Honkai: Nexus Anima and Animal Crossing-like sim Petit Planet, the company has apparently aimed its money cannon at MMOs with a new project called Genesis. A Chinese advertisement for Genesis, which may just be a placeholder or code name for now, was shared and translated by reliable HoYo sleuth HXG. I've reached out to HoYoverse for confirmation on the translated details, which should be taken with a grain of salt for the time being. Genesis is said to be a realistic fantasy MMO made in Unreal Engine 5, seemingly doing away with the anime aesthetic that has defined the company's output since Honkai Impact 3rd. Speculatively, I'd expect a style closer to the likes of Black Desert or perhaps Lost Ark, but all we've seen for now is vague art of an unnatural, ribbon-like black vortex swirling over muddy land - realistic muddy land, notably. The game is described as an open-world MMO that includes PvP - another rarity for modern HoYo games, which don't really pit players against each other outside minigames and light leaderboards - and integrates AI at multiple levels. "Boss Fight" gets a callout, too. Generative AI is not mentioned specifically, but compared to the usual video game implication of artificial intelligence - that is, making NPCs do things - Genesis seems more AI-heavy. That said, there is also mention of an "Intellectual NPC" system. "Artificial Intelligence Stimulated Ecosystem" and "All-Terrain Battle AI" somewhat confusingly hint at ambitions for an MMO made more dynamic by AI-controlled variables or systems. Nvidia announced last year that HoYoverse was among the studios using its new AI-powered NPC technology, and it sounds like that's born fruit here. We're still waiting to hear more about a "paranormal" online game with guns, vehicles, and a destruction system which was first teased in 2021 as the focus of then-MiHoYo's Montreal branch. It sounds like Genesis is a new beast entirely, as that paranormal game was said to be a "AAA open-world action-adventure" title. At one point it looked like it might have mutated into the sci-fi urban action RPG Zenless Zone Zero, but that, too, is a separate project. The big question hanging over Genesis is the same one as every new HoYo game: will it be a gacha game? My money's on yes; plenty of MMOs use gacha mechanics, and HoYo is nothing if not a company with a type. But this and other details are still very much up in the air. There's also no indication of when Genesis may be released. Based on this hiring call, it seems to be fairly early in development. With billions of gacha bucks in the bank, HoYoverse is at least well-positioned to fund the famously hard and expensive venture that is MMO development. Amazon couldn't hack it for many reasons (shareholders among them) and WoW vet Greg Street just had to close his new studio without releasing planned MMO Ghost.