Genshin impact cost $100M to make, but expected to cost $200M per year of dev (700 devs working on the game now)

[IvorB]

I wonder how much they spend on those crappy, low-rent web events they keep doing ha ha.

I can totally see this though because, even though some of the content has had a mixed reponse, the production pipeline is impressive to me. As much as those fetch quests sucked, to create a mode like Theatre Mechanicus and all the dialogue etc for those quests along with all the QA hot off the heals of Dragonspire, is pretty impressive to me.

 

[Marcelo Guimaraes]

Then it's inevitably going to become the most expensive game ever right??
What's the record? If it's still GTA V's 260m, it's going to break it this year.
Still seems like a a fucking ton of money of an year of updates considering most AAA games that cost that much do so in 3-5 year dev cycles.

 

[Speedstersonic]

This is a $100 million game on mobile, PC and PS4.

MiHoYo alone employs 1500 devs.

"came out of nowhere" -> They spent millions in marketing and released the game on 3 platforms and they are the people behing Honkai Impact lmfao

This is not an unknown small title like Valheim that "came out of nowhere"

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I disagree with you as nobody really knew or talked about this company when it was just honkai. And it was primarily developed as a mobile game first. Yes they spent quite a lot on marketing, most mobile companies do...

 

[Raigor]

I disagree with you as nobody really knew or talked about this company when it was just honkai. And it was primarily developed as a mobile game first. Yes they spent quite a lot on marketing, most mobile companies do...

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If people don't follow the mobile market, "no shit" nobody talked about this company lol

 

[Einbroch]

I disagree with you as nobody really knew or talked about this company when it was just honkai. And it was primarily developed as a mobile game first. Yes they spent quite a lot on marketing, most mobile companies do...

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Honkai is massive in both China and Japan. Mihoyo was definitely a known company in the mobile space. They were making nearly half a billion a year before Genshin Impact.

 

[Mendrox]

I disagree with you as nobody really knew or talked about this company when it was just honkai. And it was primarily developed as a mobile game first. Yes they spent quite a lot on marketing, most mobile companies do...

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Honkai is pretty pretty big. If you follow mobile games you would know them or you live in a bubble.

 

[Deleted member 80231]

I know the Lantern Event was the low point for many people, including me, but when people say "lol how can it be so expensive" they probably forget some facts, like how the game is localized in 13 different languages and has 4 different dubs, including a Japanese one that has some of the best known (and, as such, expensive) voice actor and actresses in the market.

That shit alone must be expensive. Add to that the development costs and marketing and I can see those numbers adding up. They're probably planing a massive campaign for the release of Inazuma, since it's an anime game and that area is feudal Japan.

People should also keep in mind that, even if they decided to step up their game, stuff in game development takes time. We won't see the effects of the increased resources and staff allocated for a while. If patches 1.5 and 1.6 are still as bad as this Lantern Rite thingy, then I'd agree that the higher ups are absolutely delusional.

Honkai is pretty pretty big. If you follow mobile games you would know them or you live in a bubble.

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I'm not really that much into mobile games (although I've played some over the years) and I knew what Honkai was. For a few months half of the ads you'd see in Youtube among other platforms were from that game. I feel some people in this forum like to close their eyes, hum a song as loud as humanly possible, and repeat to themselves that mobile gaming didn't exist.

 

[Speedstersonic]

Honkai is pretty pretty big. If you follow mobile games you would know them or you live in a bubble.

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No I do not follow mobile games, and most people I know do not. Honkai may have only been big in China cause first anyone i know ever heard of it was after genshin impact

 

[Pancracio17]

I think people really underestimate what it takes to make regular content updates. If it takes years just to make a single game, getting an update up and ready in a few months must be a nightmare.

 

[Mendrox]

No I do not follow mobile games, and most people I know do not. Honkai may have only been big in China cause first anyone i know ever heard of it was after genshin impact

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Honkai is big worldwide.

 

[Speedstersonic]

I know the Lantern Event was the low point for many people, including me, but when people say "lol how can it be so expensive" they probably forget some facts, like how the game is localized in 13 different languages and has 4 different dubs, including a Japanese one that has some of the best known (and, as such, expensive) voice actor and actresses in the market.

That shit alone must be expensive. Add to that the development costs and marketing and I can see those numbers adding up. They're probably planing a massive campaign for the release of Inazuma, since it's an anime game and that area is feudal Japan.

People should also keep in mind that, even if they decided to step up their game, stuff in game development takes time. We won't see the effects of the increased resources and staff allocated for a while. If patches 1.5 and 1.6 are still as bad as this Lantern Rite thingy, then I'd agree that the higher ups are absolutely delusional.



I'm not really that much into mobile games (although I've played some over the years) and I knew what Honkai was. For a few months half of the ads you'd see in Youtube among other platforms were from that game. I feel some people in this forum like to close their eyes, hum a song as loud as humanly possible, and repeat to themselves that mobile gaming didn't exist.

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I hated this lantern event so much, but only the side quests part. Doing 25+ stupid side quests such as, let me do this random dock worker's job, were just so frustratingly boring. The other parts were ok at least.

And as for mobile games ads, all i EVER see these last 2 years or so is RAID SHADOW LEGENDS, and i am so sick of seeing ads for that trash i will never touch.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

A billion players with that trashy ass art style

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How you gonna talk about BotW like that?

:v

 

[Deleted member 80231]

I hated this lantern event so much, but only the side quests part. Doing 25+ stupid side quests such as, let me do this random dock worker's job, were just so frustratingly boring. The other parts were ok at least.

And as for mobile games ads, all i EVER see these last 2 years or so is RAID SHADOW LEGENDS, and i am so sick of seeing ads for that trash i will never touch.

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RAID SHADOW LEGENDS is definitely more obnoxious, since they'd aggressively sponsor content creators as well, which can't be avoided using AdBlock lol.

The sidequests were terrible, with that I agree. The tower defense was fun, but it should have had a fast forward button IMO.

 

[GaussianMultivariate]

release it on xbox dammit ><

 

[SeanBoocock]

It's a metaphorical $200m. Not an actual $200m.

In other words, they will spend more operating the game than they did developing the game as they plan to constantly update it with new content.

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Also not clear if this accounts for user acquisition. Could be most of the total.

 

[Tyaren]

Sure didn't show it with the 1.3 patch, that's for sure.

It'll become apparent when Chasm and Inazuma come out with all new music, characters, gameplay types, and so on, but these 12 weeks look ROUGH.

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Dragonspine was a good first glimpse of what can be expected of actually new content that was based on Mihoyo's experience so far and player feedback so far. The Lantern Rite was conceived very early in the game's development and pretty much stayed, except for the addition of the tower defense mode, that way. I assume due to time constraints.

I do have some some faith that Mihoyo is already and will be stepping up their game, especially after their big initial financial success and us knowing that they added 200 more developers to the team.
700 people are a huge team. Games like God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn were developed with less than half the manpower.

...they probably forget some facts, like how the game is localized in 13 different languages and has 4 different dubs, including a Japanese one that has some of the best known (and, as such, expensive) voice actor and actresses in the market.

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Add the OST to that. Written and produced by the best in the biz and recorded with the top orchestras of the world.

 

[Cordy]

Yeah they'll pull it off I'm sure.

 

[808s & Villainy]

Then it's inevitably going to become the most expensive game ever right??
What's the record? If it's still GTA V's 260m, it's going to break it this year.
Still seems like a a fucking ton of money of an year of updates considering most AAA games that cost that much do so in 3-5 year dev cycles.

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Not when Star Citizen exists, although I guess that won't actually count until it's released

 

[oneils]

It's a metaphorical $200m. Not an actual $200m.

In other words, they will spend more operating the game than they did developing the game as they plan to constantly update it with new content.

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Yeah it does seem like business shorthand: "We spent a fortune developing this, and are willing to invest multiples of that to expand and improve it."

 

[Falchion]

No clue how the ongoing development is twice as expensive as creating the game from scratch.

 

[elenarie]

the game is localized in 13 different languages and has 4 different dubs, including a Japanese one that has some of the best known (and, as such, expensive) voice actor and actresses in the market.

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That's not really that expensive. 😛

 

[Lump]

Half that budget is probably going to Japanese VAs (Genshin is basically getting all of the famous ones) and orchestras. They fired a money cannon at the London Philharmonic for the launch zone.

 

[headspawn]

release it on xbox dammit ><

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ikr, like we'd like to help you out

 

[Marcelo Guimaraes]

Not when Star Citizen exists, although I guess that won't actually count until it's released

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What's the budget?

 

[Minions]

As someone who has been playing it. I don't understand where those kind of development costs go, let alone how many devs they have working on the game. I can only figure based on this, that they are horribly mismanaged. Teams of 200 put out more per month on many games. To see 3x+ that amount and the meager releases that come out each month is astounding.

 

[Apollo]

Honest question to all that play more live-service games that I do: is there a game where people are actually happy with the amount of new stuff per month? Because I see this complaint all the time. It's not exactly like you can materialize new areas and quests out of thin air.

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I play a decent number of gacha and Genshin (which I do love) is uniquely unsatisfying imo in terms of content pacing and endgame. It's got a brilliant honeymoon period and then falls into a progression structure that honestly just causes me stress. I don't need a gacha to be the only game I play, but I do want to feel like I'm making progress and I do want to be able to play with my new toys in a reasonable timeframe, Genshin makes both difficult (but especially the latter). And when I can't play with those new toys, it makes the lack of meaningful new content all the more apparent.

 

[Daeoc]

As someone who has been playing it. I don't understand where those kind of development costs go, let alone how many devs they have working on the game. I can only figure based on this, that they are horribly mismanaged. Teams of 200 put out more per month on many games. To see 3x+ that amount and the meager releases that come out each month is astounding.

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It could mean they are actually well managed, working on multiple new regions(which are what I would call expansions) at the same time while still providing some new content.

When you compare it to say WoW or FFXIV which drip feed you content every 3-4 months(even going up to around a year for WoW) to keep you subscribed until the next expansion, I think they are doing well, especially since it is F2P. I know I am comparing Genshin Impact to MMOs, but the gear treadmill/content is similar.

 

[808s & Villainy]

What's the budget?

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$300m was how much they've raised as of mid 2020

 

[Divvy]

Worth it for the OST

 

[StrangeRoboMemory]

The production values are evident, the game looks amazing. The biggest issue the game has, probably the most critical issue that will hold back its potential success, is the massive drop in quality when you leave Mondstadt, the first zone. The initial quests with Venti and Dvalin are so good, big cast of characters, all of them get time to shine, there's a lot of incentive to keep playing. By comparison, the Liyue area - while it looks beautiful - has a god awful story, you don't get too meet or do much of anything with most of the Liyue characters, a third of the story is dedicated to fetch quests so that you can collect the ingredients to make a perfume. I'm sure that the game has shed a decent number of players because of this...I'd almost say it's worth them taking the time to redo this section. If Inazuma is the same quality, only the real hardcore players will stick around.

The overworld also needs a lot more enemy mob variety...you kill the same handful of enemies over and over.

 

[Deleted member 80231]

That's not really that expensive. 😛

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It's not 200 million expensive, but everything adds up, doesn't it? Especially if you're hiring some of the best known (and expensive) Japanese voice actors and actresses which are a bit like celebrities among certain fanbases. See people losing their minds because X or Y is voicing someone in the game.

Other people have given examples of games like Fate Grand Order, which looks bad, plays even worse, has performance problems and really long loading times, and it's still quite expensive to run because of the voice talent that they have hired for their Japanese (and only) dub.

They probably want to commit to that 6 week update they promised, which sounds like hell, all things considered, and hope that throwing more and more people into development would make that happen. Which sounds insane for any game whose gameplay is not anime JPEGs screaming at each other.

 

[Minions]

It could mean they are actually well managed, working on multiple new regions(which are what I would call expansions) at the same time while still providing some new content.

When you compare it to say WoW or FFXIV which drip feed you content every 3-4 months(even going up to around a year for WoW) to keep you subscribed until the next expansion, I think they are doing well, especially since it is F2P. I know I am comparing Genshin Impact to MMOs, but the gear treadmill/content is similar.

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I'd agree if they were not taking 4-6 months to release small areas like dragonspine, which had very little content in them.

 

[VPplaya]

I didn't realize that the Lantern Rite was developed so early in development. While I don't hate the event as much as some people, I was pretty disappointed that it didn't incorporate any actual characters (aside from Xiao of course). Feels like a massive missed opportunity.

As far as the production values go, every new area has demonstrated a significant increase in environment and world design (Mondstadt -> Liyue -> Dragonspine). I imagine that Inazuma will be incredibly fun to explore.

 

[Tyaren]

[/QUOTE]

I'd agree if they were not taking 6+ months to release small areas like dragonspine, which had very little content in them.

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It didn't. It took them 3 months to release Dragonspine.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

"Trashy ass" huh? And with each region itself being about as big (and siginificantly more dense) as the entire map in other open world games as well? Never change Era.

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I'm obviously talking about the character design. Which absolutely is extremely trashy

 

[Servbot24]

What the hell? How. I know it takes a lot of work but that sounds like Rockstar numbers.

 

[StrangeRoboMemory]

I'm obviously talking about the character design. Which absolutely is extremely trashy

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Honestly, in the grand scheme of anime/anime-adjacent gacha games, Genshin character designs are comparatively tasteful.

 

[Zemst]

I'm sure they can with the insane money they made back.

 

[Weltall Zero]

That doesn't make sense whatsoever. They made two full countries in the base game for 100M; should we expect four new countries per year? So all of Teyvat will be done by early 2022? Literally doesn't add up.

It feels like they ramped up production based on the huge spike of money rolling in from launch, but I don't see how that's sustainable long-term. That said, if anything they've demonstrated to really know what they're doing so far, so I really hope to be wrong, and that they are indeed accounting for post-launch decline.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Y'all realize this game made $250 million in just its first month right?

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Right, but that's the best month the game is ever going to get. Gacha games normally make bank at the beginning, when people are in the honeymoon period, before they exhaust current content and add them to their game rotation or leave entirely. Scaling up production that much based on first month income is a bit of an iffy decision.

The takeaway however is that they're going all in with the game and investing the money back into it. That's very good news for its players as long as the game doesn't overextend so much that it becomes a problem. So far they've demonstrated a lot of savvyiness in both game develoment and management, so I would expect them to scale back down if the cash stops flowing.

 

[Tyaren]

I'm obviously talking about the character design. Which absolutely is extremely trashy

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Then say you are talking about character design in the first place instead of just shitposting. And maybe actually specify which designs, because I'll ask you to look at this character design, and that includes the animations, voice acting and music theme, and tell me it is "extremely trashy" with a straight face:

 

[Deleted member 21709]

I wonder how much they spend on those crappy, low-rent web events they keep doing ha ha.

I can totally see this though because, even though some of the content has had a mixed reponse, the production pipeline is impressive to me. As much as those fetch quests sucked, to create a mode like Theatre Mechanicus and all the dialogue etc for those quests along with all the QA hot off the heals of Dragonspire, is pretty impressive to me.

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I wouldn't exactly call the lantern event 'low-rent'.

I'm obviously talking about the character design. Which absolutely is extremely trashy

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Genshin Impact's character designs aren't that trashy actually. It is NOTHING compared to things like Xenoblade 2.

 

[Weltall Zero]

This is also shocking to me at least:

Staff size has doubled each year since 2014, hitting 2400 in 2020, Genshin staff is ~700

Genshin's staff being less than a third of MiHoYo total is mindblowing. I expected it to be almost all hands on deck with Genshin, with a fraction of that on Honkai.

 

[Conkerkid11]

Half that budget is probably going to Japanese VAs (Genshin is basically getting all of the famous ones) and orchestras. They fired a money cannon at the London Philharmonic for the launch zone.

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And it was worth every cent. The OST is fire.

 

[Tofd]

Then say you are talking about character design in the first place instead of just shitposting. And maybe actually specify which designs, because I'll ask you to look at this character design, and that includes the animations, voice acting and music, and tell me it is "extremely trashy" with a straight face:

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He's clearly rereferring to most of the female cast design. Tell me with a straight face that Rosaria, Mona, Lisa aren't trashy designs. Doesn't help with the boob physics that would even impress DOA.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Then say you are talking about character design in the first place instead of just shitposting. And maybe actually specify which designs, because I'll ask you to look at this character design, and that includes the animations, voice acting and music theme, and tell me it is "extremely trashy" with a straight face:

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The character design doesn't include the voice acting and music theme lmao

the character design and generic anime art style comes across as extremely trashy to me

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Honestly, in the grand scheme of anime/anime-adjacent gacha games, Genshin character designs are comparatively tasteful.

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It's not trashy in the sense that the designs are lewd. It's the generic-ness that comes across as trashy

 

[Tyaren]

He's clearly rereferring to most of the female cast design. Tell me with a straight face that Rosaria, Mona, Lisa aren't trashy designs. Doesn't help with the boob physics that would even impress DOA.

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He wasn't "clearly" referencing anything. He was just calling the art style of the game "trashy ass".

And if you are trying a gotcha! here, you are barking up the wrong tree, because I have been vocal about specific female character designs of the game before myself.

The character design doesn't include the voice acting and music theme lmao

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Hell yeah, it does! You are just talking to someone who works for some years now in game character design.

 

[ApeEscaper]

They are making looots of money in this game I'm not surprised

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

He wasn't "clearly" referencing anything. He was just calling the art style of the game "trashy ass".

And if you are trying a gotcha here, you are barking up the wrong tree, because I have been vocal about specific female character designs before myself.

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The character design is the biggest part of a game's art style for me, sorry I didn't clarify before. No matter how much you argue with me I'm not going to change my stance. The character design is bafflingly generic and unpleasant to look at and therefore it's trashy to me. It's my opinion. Get over it.