Liu Wei, better known to HoYoverse fans as Da Wei, is a billionaire – but that hasn’t stopped him from weeping like a baby on stage at a recent fanfest in Shanghai. While most company executives quietly pull the strings from their Ivory Towers, the boss of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail is surprisingly forward-facing, interacting with fans and often appearing in livestreams for milestone updates.
However, he couldn’t hold back the tears when addressing criticism pointed at him and his company. “We did hear many comments,” he sniffled. “[People said me] and the Genshin Impact team are all useless. There are also many people who said the Genshin Impact team is arrogant and doesn’t listen to everyone’s opinion. But we’re just like you guys – we’re players, too. What you feel, we feel.”
Da Wei went on to explain that he doesn’t believe the most ferocious feedback comes from real fans, and that it needs to be filtered to find out how people really feel. His company can then take meaningful action.
The good news is that the game’s upcoming Natlan update looks like it’ll be a game changer for the title, incorporating many quality of life updates that will improve the experience for veterans and newcomers alike. Due out on 28th August, v5.0 will bring the next milestone moment in Genshin Impact’s story, adding an entire new open world region and cast of characters.
But while the new location itself looks interesting, it’s the quality of life improvements that are attracting the most praise. HoYoverse is enhancing many things: it’s making it easier to improve your stamina, faster to discover upgrade materials, and it’ll even let you easily level new characters to 60, so you don’t have to waste your time. Furthermore, a new material will allow you to custom create Artifacts, so you can get the stat buffs you want.
Furthermore, the developer is giving away a ton of free pulls with this update. Genshin Impact has been heavily criticised for its lack of generosity, especially when compared to rival HoYoverse gacha games like Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero. It seems the company has got the message – it’s even handing out a free five-star character!
While it’ll still take you over 1,000 hours to catch up on the game’s story content, you’ll be able to skip directly to Natlan fairly early on if you start playing with the release of v5.0, although you’ll obviously miss the context of prior content. Regardless, it’s clear the developer has been listening to feedback, and judging by Da Wei’s speech, it clearly cares about its fans!
[source x.com, via youtube.com]
Comments 26
What working 24 hours a day down in the gacha mines does to a man.
I feel bad for developers sometimes. Gamers are so entitled and the worst of us are so vocal. I see it daily with Helldivers 2. People attacking and constantly berating other people because they don't like a change made to a weapon or something else actually inconsequential. Embarrassing.
@The_Wailing_Doom Absolutely, it's kinda pathetic. I don't like live service games - at all - but I would never attack developers like this. People have become WAY too entitled. Sometimes, I wonder.. if comment sections should just be removed everywhere.
If you don't like a certain game, genre or a change within a game then that's fine, but it's absolutely pathetic to consistently hate on it and aim abuse at the developers. Just move on and find a game that makes you happy instead of continuously being negative towards something as simple as a video game.
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@Yagami Ah, well, I'm not too familiar with Genshin so I'm not sure what you're referring too. But just plain old toxic behaviour online is unacceptable, no matter what game it is. It's like a child throwing a temper tantrum when they don't get their way
A lot of these are activists, harassing developers for not including diversity
He’s a billionaire. If he had real human emotions then he wouldn’t have accumulated that much wealth.
I feel like im going insane reading these comments. Genshin Impact is one of the most predatory games there is. Not even mentioning the cultural insensitivities alleged by some players—the entire gacha model is built off the backs of exploiting vulnerable people to give up all their free time and money into games of chance. This man became a billionaire off of predatory actions that have had very real affects on real people’s lives. I don’t think the average developer who has a passion for games and is just trying to do their job should face intense criticism. But this guy? Absolutely no sympathy from me.
Refreshing, this what happen when a real gamer run gaming company, not making backlash against fans telling them racist or others "ist". Then western company wonders why their games isn't selling.
Gacha + mobile + f2p + micro transaction + digital only = the recipe for me to not EVER consider & support their games.
@KillerBoy Ridiculous." Activism" cuts both ways.... 🙄
While it's true gamers are ridiculously entitled and many individuals are toxic (although that can be said about most fandoms), Gatcha belongs in the dumpster. I refuse to play stuff like Genshin because it's so predatory.
Poor fella :/ humans can be so harsh
He dries away his tears with stacks of cash
Article about toxic abuse on game developers: cue several reactionary comments of toxic abuse (with the typical childish self-justification and puritanical morality displays). However, glad to see most people have sympathy because while they might be very successful and wealthy, just as he said, they are players too, and human beings.
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I finally burned out on HYV games. They were fun time sinks for a while but eventually I started to wish they'd stop the churn and put their huge amounts of money and talent towards spending time making a game and a story with more depth. Issue is, they're like the fast food of gaming. Churn is what they excel at and it's the only reason they can make as much money as they do, as quickly as they do.
Yeah, I would never call a game thrash because I don't like it. It may appeal to others. Predatory monetisation on the other hand must be called out!
I hate these fake things come on no one believes it. A politician, CEO, President im not buying it one bit.
@Silenos Well atleast he found one person who believes his nonsense I have the same feelings about Phil it's all crodile tears.
I can only imagine what life would’ve been like for Atari and Nintendo if the internet was easily accessible back in the 80s. The way those consoles barely worked. There’d probably have been suicides. Humanity is a stain!
People (not only in the gaming space) are always ready and happy to badmouth others at the slightest hint of them doing something wrong or even something they don't like.
That's not gonna change any time soon. I mostly try to ignore it-.-'
Wow. just wow. This comment section just shows how people don't care about others. This man cries and we still dog on him!? I'm speechless.
Don't plan to play the game, but this article reminds me of the old phrase "Crying all the way to the bank".
That Furina music in the BG I just can't 😂
I don't think an article like this will go well with dwellers on the site here because they are not real fans ahem ahem - I mean 4 years of lost context within the sphere.
Evolution taken place when people gave positive feedback over the course of the game they love turned into not-so-positive feedback.
They produced multiple games and at the same time mails in-game surveys (more than every game in the industry, with total clarity of the issues of the game events listed upfront somehow) ... goes ahead and repeat/design those pitfalls.
Every casual gamer has their limits.
QOL on that/their other game doesn't even compare, yes?
I would only say, before all these debacle ended, the team done suspicious things in tldr.
The most important thing is . . . It's not "Dev Listened".
It's "Devs Learned". That's all to it 👋
ㅤ
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