Genshin Impact is one of the biggest and most popular video games in the world today, but it wasn’t always like this. When HoYoverse unveiled their ambitious title in 2019, the general public didn’t welcome it and accused the studio of making a “cheap copy” of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the super successful game that Nintendo had released for the Switch just 2 years before. Of course, over the years, HoYoverse proved that Genshin was not a copy and secured the global success of their project, but this was not easy for the team, as some couldn’t help crying over these accusations.
Genshin Impact copied from Zelda: Breath of the Wild?
The CEO of HoYoVERSE Liu Wei just shared the experience of the developers during that turbulent time, at the recent Genshin Impact FES Event. It turns out that they were very proud of the closed beta of the game when it was released, but that the mixed reception of it (along with some misunderstandings) demoralized the team a lot, and the younger ones approached him in tears. Although Wei doesn’t mention Breath of the Wild specifically, it’s obvious that he’s referring to this title, since the accusations of copying it caused a lot of controversy when Genshin was revealed a few years ago.
“When we launched the closed beta, we were very proud, full of hope and thinking that we did well,” said Liu Wei “But the response to the beta was completely different from what we expected. So we faced an unprecedented crisis. Everyone saw the video of the closed beta and said ‘We don’t really understand what Genshin Impact wants to do’. Not many understood us, and there were many misunderstandings.” None of this surprises us. Let’s remember that a Zelda fan even broke a PlayStation 4 in protest against Sony for promoting HoYoverse’s new title.
“At that time, everyone on our team was really worried. I remember that many young colleagues were crying and telling me: ‘Why is this happening? What did we do wrong?’ With that youthful innocence. You could say that we have no fear, so we thought and acted,” concluded the CEO of HoYoverse. More than 4 years later, Genshin Impact managed to silence those who saw it as a simple copy. With a free-to-play gacha system, multiple playable characters, an extensive story, availability on consoles and mobile devices, constant updates and much more.
Many fans within the industry have a bad habit of accusing a new title of being a “copy” just because they were inspired by other successful games. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of the most revolutionary and influential titles of its generation, and ended up inspiring multiple games from other companies. That’s how art works, and HoYoverse never hid that they were inspired by this game to create Genshin Impact. Luckily there is a happy ending: Now we live in a world where Genshin continues to accumulate money and players, while Nintendo just released the awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom.
© COGNOSPHERE.