Sweet burden in the game world
On March 10, the latest data released by Sensor Tower Store Intelligence Platform showed that thanks to the holding of Hu Tao and Ye Lan character activities in early February, and the update of version 3.5 in late February, Mihoyo’s “Genshin Impact” overseas revenue increased again that month, winning the championship of the overseas mobile game revenue list and returning to the top of the revenue growth list.
At the same time, with the launch of new characters, plots and activities, Mihoyo’s “Honkai Impact 3” overseas revenue increased by 62% month-on-month this period, returning to the 14th place in the revenue list and ranking third in the growth list.
It is understood that as a popular character in “Genshin Impact”, Hu Tao once re-engraved the card pool on November 3, 2021, which once caused Mihoyo’s server to crash. And this re-engraving has been 451 days since the last re-engraving. Another character, Ye Lan, is called “Queen of Night” by players because of her explosive strength.
Since its launch in September 2020, Genshin Impact has generated more than $4 billion (about 27.68 billion yuan) in mobile revenue. Among them, in the first 11 months of 2022, Genshin Impact’s mobile revenue was about $1.64 billion (about 11.32 billion yuan). But this is only the mobile revenue of Genshin Impact, not including PC, console, etc.
Just last month, the joint event between Genshin Impact and Pizza Hut caused the Pizza Hut APP to crash. This topic became a hot search, which indirectly confirmed the money-making ability of Mihoyo’s Genshin Impact IP.
It is worth mentioning that Mihoyo, the producer of Genshin Impact, had queued up for IPO as early as 2017, but it eventually took the initiative to withdraw its listing application materials.
According to China Consumer News, recently, reporters received complaints from many consumers, reflecting that children stole their parents’ mobile phones to recharge and consume games under Shanghai Mihoyo Shadow Iron Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Mihoyo), with the amount ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan.
When these consumers asked miHoYo for a refund, they encountered problems such as “customer service shirking responsibility”, “difficult to provide evidence”, and “refund rejection”.
Some of the recharge records provided by Mr. Zeng showed that his 12-year-old child had taken his mobile phone on the pretext of studying, registered to play miHoYo’s “Genshin Impact” game with his parents’ ID card, and purchased various “crystals” in the game through Mr. Zeng’s mobile payment. Because it was a minor who recharged the game, Mr. Zeng applied for a refund to miHoYo’s customer service and provided dozens of materials such as the real-name mobile phone number of the child’s game account, the real-name bank card number of the payment, the payment bill certificate, the student certificate, and the online class certificate. MiHoYo determined that it could not be accepted on the grounds that the identity information when registering the game was not a close relative of the person himself, and closed the appeal channel.
“At around 22:55 on January 17, 648 yuan was recharged 6 times, 198 yuan 6 times, and 328 yuan 2 times in just a few minutes. This is obviously a recharge behavior made by a child who has no independent civil capacity and has no concept of money.” Mr. Zeng told reporters, “Mihoyo did not strictly control the registration of the game, and the recharge was unimpeded. It did not take measures such as identity verification and face recognition for real-name verification, but when parents asked for a refund, it shirked responsibility for various reasons.”
What measures does Mihoyo take in game registration, recharge and other links to prevent minors from becoming addicted? What principles are used to judge the recharge issue of minors? In response to these questions, Mihoyo’s relevant personnel replied to the reporter: “Regarding the situation you mentioned, we are already checking and handling it, and we will synchronize the results with you.” But as of press time, the reporter has not received a reply from Mihoyo.
On November 24, 2022, news came out that Mihoyo’s Project SH project announced the suspension of the project. It is reported that Project SH is an open world project developed by Cai Haoyu, the founder of miHoYo and the producer of “Genshin Impact”, using the UE5 engine. It is called “one of miHoYo’s most ambitious and largest products under development”.
Previously, it was said that the game project would be exposed to the outside world as early as the second half of 2023 or within 2024, becoming a product that “challenges the ceiling” for miHoYo.
However, the dissolution of Project SH may also be within miHoYo’s tolerance. In addition to the existing successful products, miHoYo currently has “