Genshin Impact dev seemingly ditching anime art to take on the MMO money pit with a new game called Genesis packing an open world, PvP, and a whole load of AI

Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse has yet another game in the works. After creature-collector strategy game Honkai: Nexus Anima and Animal Crossing-like sim Petit Planet, the company has apparently aimed its money cannon at MMOs with a new project called Genesis.

A Chinese advertisement for Genesis, which may just be a placeholder or code name for now, was shared and translated by reliable HoYo sleuth HXG. I've reached out to HoYoverse for confirmation on the translated details, which should be taken with a grain of salt for the time being.

Genesis is said to be a realistic fantasy MMO made in Unreal Engine 5, seemingly doing away with the anime aesthetic that has defined the company's output since Honkai Impact 3rd. Speculatively, I'd expect a style closer to the likes of Black Desert or perhaps Lost Ark, but all we've seen for now is vague art of an unnatural, ribbon-like black vortex swirling over muddy land – realistic muddy land, notably.

The game is described as an open-world MMO that includes PvP – another rarity for modern HoYo games, which don't really pit players against each other outside minigames and light leaderboards – and integrates AI at multiple levels. "Boss Fight" gets a callout, too.

Generative AI is not mentioned specifically, but compared to the usual video game implication of artificial intelligence – that is, making NPCs do things – Genesis seems more AI-heavy. That said, there is also mention of an "Intellectual NPC" system.

"Artificial Intelligence Stimulated Ecosystem" and "All-Terrain Battle AI" somewhat confusingly hint at ambitions for an MMO made more dynamic by AI-controlled variables or systems.

Nvidia announced last year that HoYoverse was among the studios using its new AI-powered NPC technology, and it sounds like that's born fruit here.

We're still waiting to hear more about a "paranormal" online game with guns, vehicles, and a destruction system which was first teased in 2021 as the focus of then-MiHoYo's Montreal branch. It sounds like Genesis is a new beast entirely, as that paranormal game was said to be a "AAA open-world action-adventure" title. At one point it looked like it might have mutated into the sci-fi urban action RPG Zenless Zone Zero, but that, too, is a separate project.

The big question hanging over Genesis is the same one as every new HoYo game: will it be a gacha game? My money's on yes; plenty of MMOs use gacha mechanics, and HoYo is nothing if not a company with a type. But this and other details are still very much up in the air.

There's also no indication of when Genesis may be released. Based on this hiring call, it seems to be fairly early in development. With billions of gacha bucks in the bank, HoYoverse is at least well-positioned to fund the famously hard and expensive venture that is MMO development. Amazon couldn't hack it for many reasons (shareholders among them) and WoW vet Greg Street just had to close his new studio without releasing planned MMO Ghost.

World of Warcraft director says Blizzard has no plans to bring the MMO to consoles: "Our focus remains on the PC-based experience."