Chinese gaming company MiHoyo, developer of hit mobile game Genshin Impact, has launched a metaverse brand called HoYoverse, showing a keen intention to embrace the idea of a shared and interactive virtual world.

“Our mission in setting up HoYoverse is to create a vast and content-driven virtual world that combines games, anime, and other diverse types of entertainment, which will provide players worldwide with a high level of freedom and immersion,” Cai Haoyu, co-founder and CEO of MiHoYo, said in a statement.

Cai added that HoYoverse will make consistent research and development in fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and infrastructure to meet the expectations of players worldwide for a virtual world experience.

MiHoyo's new metaverse brand will expand its content production, technology research, and publishing through overseas offices in Montreal, Los Angeles, Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul, the company said in the announcement.

Founded in 2012, miHoYo so far employs 4,000 people worldwide at offices including China’s Shanghai, Singapore, the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea, and it is well known internationally for its gacha game Genshin Impact, and RPG Honkai Impact 3rd,.

Genshin Impact soon became international well-known mobile title that generated USD2 billion in its first year on mobile.

According to mobile data analytic firm Sensor Tower, MiHoyo is China’s third largest game publishers as of January 2022 in terms of revenue, behind Tencent and NetEase.

As China aims to expand its soft power, companies with successful cultural products will benefit from the large trend of Chinese businesses going overseas. In July 2021, China’s Ministry of Commerce named MiHoYo as one of 300 important culture companies, and Genshin Impact was also named as one of key culture exports.