Wenhui: Genshin Impact Nominated for "Oscars of the Gaming Industry"

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一个月前，米哈游历时四年精心打造的游戏《原神》在全球150多个国家地区上线，近日交出首月漂亮成绩单：全球20多个国家地区App Store游戏畅销榜登顶，入选被誉为“游戏界奥斯卡”的TGA和英国最有分量的游戏产业大奖“金摇杆”两个重量级奖项，在此之前，这些游戏界顶级奖项评选中鲜有中国游戏的身影。
One month ago, the game *Genshin Impact*, meticulously crafted by miHoYo over four years, went live in over 150 countries and regions worldwide. Recently, it presented an impressive report card for its first month: it topped the App Store's best-selling games charts in over 20 countries and regions globally, and secured two heavyweight awards from The Game Awards (TGA), hailed as the "Oscars of the Gaming Industry," and the prestigious UK gaming industry award, the "Golden Joystick." Prior to this, Chinese games were rarely seen in the nominations of these top gaming awards.

一亿美元投入研发，将开放世界搬入手游，打破电脑、手机、主机等游戏平台的壁垒……《原神》风靡全球的背后，是许多技术上的第一次尝试。不止《原神》，近年来频频在游戏圈中掀起波澜的《明日方舟》《江南百景图》《恋与制作人》等“爆款”手游，都出自上海游戏公司，从业者认为，随着故事、技术和发行渠道不断成熟，上海游戏业正迎来“二次腾飞”。
With a $100 million investment in research and development, bringing the open world to mobile gaming and breaking barriers across platforms such as computers, phones, and consoles, *Genshin Impact* has gained global popularity due to many technological first attempts. Not just *Genshin Impact*, but also recent blockbuster mobile games in the gaming community such as *Arknights*, *Jiangnan Baijingtu*, and *Mr Love: Queen's Choice*, all coming from Shanghai-based game companies. Industry experts believe that as storytelling, technology, and distribution channels continue to mature, the Shanghai gaming industry is experiencing a "second soaring."

## Bringing the "Open World" to Mobile

漫步在《原神》的提瓦特大陆中，玩家可以随心所遇地从高山草甸走到繁华都市，不会遭遇走几步便加载地图的尴尬，这种“无缝地图”加上高自由度探索游戏被人称之为开放世界。开放世界极大提高了游戏的沉浸感，一度是单机游戏大作的“标配”。
Walking through the continent of Teyvat in *Genshin Impact*, players can freely explore from mountain meadows to bustling cities without the awkwardness of map loading after taking a few steps. This "seamless map" with high freedom of exploration is known as an open world. The open world significantly enhances the immersion in the game and was once considered a "standard" for blockbuster single-player games.

开放世界难在哪里？因为每次加载地图，计算机就要通过计算和渲染将地图上所有的草木、建筑“画”出来，如果地图上需要计算的模型太多，加载就会变慢。有数据表明，人们对打开一个网页的忍耐力在3秒以下。所以游戏厂家一般通过把地图分割成一个个小盒子的方式，让计算机只调用当前数据。这也导致了一个弊端，当进入别的“盒子”，需要重新加载数据，这时计算机就会黑屏。
What makes the open world challenging? Every time a map is loaded, the computer must calculate and render all the grass, trees, and buildings on the map. If there are too many models to compute, the loading will slow down. Data shows that people's patience for opening a webpage is below 3 seconds. Therefore, game developers generally divide the map into small boxes, allowing the computer to call only the current data. However, this approach has a downside – when entering another "box," data needs to be reloaded, causing the screen to go black.

在电脑、主机等平台上实现开放世界尚且很难，何况搬到容易发烫的手机上。《原神》开始立项时，许多人并不看好这一愿景。米哈游整合了400多人的研究团队，历时四年，终于捧出了全球首款在手机上也能玩的开放世界游戏。
Achieving an open world on platforms like computers and consoles is already difficult, let alone moving it to heat-prone smartphones. When *Genshin Impact* was initially proposed, many people were skeptical of this vision. miHoYo integrated a research team of over 400 people and, after four years, finally delivered the world's first open-world game that can be played on mobile phones.

“事实上，中国在移动游戏中已经具备了全球领先优势。”米哈游公共事务负责人殷春波说，这得益于中国智能手机普及率和移动业务发展速度。比如，著名“吃鸡”游戏绝地求生想在手机端推广时，就找到腾讯合作研发。“从《原神》的表现来看，国外拥有大量手游潜在用户，中国游戏可以依托移动网络实现弯道超车。”
"In fact, China already has a leading advantage in the global mobile gaming market," said Yin Chunbo, miHoYo's Head of Public Affairs, attributing this to the widespread use of Chinese smartphones and the rapid development of the mobile industry. For example, when the popular battle royale game *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* wanted to expand to mobile, it collaborated with Tencent for development. "From the performance of *Genshin Impact*, it is clear that there is a large potential user base for mobile games abroad, and Chinese games can leverage mobile networks to achieve overtaking on the curve."

## Establishing an Industrialized System for the Gaming Industry

2011年，三位上海交大学生创立了米哈游，创业近10年，这家公司推出的五款游戏，四款还在运营，其“生命力”在平均寿命仅为一年半的手游市场上也不多见。 "In 2011, three students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University founded miHoYo. Approaching its 10th year in business, the company has released five games, with four still in operation—an uncommon resilience in a mobile gaming market where the average lifespan is only a year and a half."

“我们要做世界一流的ACG公司，对产品有着严格的质量管控。”殷春波说。所谓ACG，是动画、漫画、游戏的总称。去年，米哈游营业收入的三分之一来自海外市场，今年海外营收比例有望突破二分之一。
"We aim to become a world-class ACG company and maintain strict quality control over our products," says Yin Chunbo. ACG refers to Animation, Comics, and Games. Last year, one-third of miHoYo's operating income came from overseas markets, and this year, the proportion of overseas revenue is expected to exceed half.

殷春波认为，中国不乏好故事，欠缺的是在新时代下将故事高质量地转化为产品的能力。比如一部《哪吒之魔童降世》就几乎用到全中国的动画资源，也就意味着中国观众可能一年只能在大屏幕上看到一部这样的高水平动画，相较而言，皮克斯等动画工作室的生产效率则高很多。 "Yin Chunbo believes that China has no shortage of good stories; what is lacking is the ability to transform these stories into high-quality products in the new era. For example, a film like *Ne Zha*, which utilized almost all of China's animation resources, implies that Chinese audiences may only see one such high-quality animation on the big screen per year. In comparison, animation studios like Pixar have much higher production efficiency."

怎样才能让文化产品既精又多呢？米哈游给出的答案是建立文化产品的工业化管线。打个比方，玩家之所以至今仍对《巫师3》津津乐道，很大原因是在这款游戏在细节上“扣”到了极致——主角的目光、回礼等动作，对不同对象是不同的。而要实现这一点，就需要一点点“扣”人物的运动轨迹。
How can cultural products be both refined and abundant? miHoYo's answer is to establish an industrialized pipeline for cultural products. To illustrate, the reason players still enthusiastically discuss *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt* is largely because the game intricately details every aspect—such as the protagonist's gaze, gestures, and different interactions with various objects. Achieving this requires meticulously adjusting the character's movement trajectory.

据殷春波透露，借助《原神》这一项目，米哈游已经建立了一套游戏制作“流水线”。比如通过动作捕捉技术，将动捕演员的动作直接导入系统内，就能自动生成游戏人物跳跃、跑动的动画效果，而在此之前，一个动作就需要一个熟练工程师“扣”一个小时以上。
According to Yin Chunbo, leveraging the project *Genshin Impact*, miHoYo has established a game production "assembly line." For example, using motion capture technology, the actions of motion capture actors can be directly imported into the system, automatically generating animation effects for characters' jumps and runs. Prior to this, achieving a single action required a skilled engineer to spend over an hour.

## Shanghai's Gaming Industry is Experiencing a "Second Soaring"

20年前，以盛大游戏、第九城市、巨人网络为代表的上海游戏公司一跃成为中国游戏界龙头，而纵观今年手游iOS畅销榜TOP50游戏中有15款是今年发行的新游戏，其中8款来自上海的游戏公司或团队。上海游戏呈现出“二次腾飞”的趋势。
Twenty years ago, Shanghai gaming companies, represented by Shanda Games, The9 Limited, and Giant Interactive, rapidly became leaders in the Chinese gaming industry. Observing the current top 50 games on the iOS best-selling chart for mobile games, 15 of them are newly released this year, with 8 coming from Shanghai-based gaming companies or teams. Shanghai's gaming industry is showing a trend of "second soaring."

在米哈游看来，消费者更愿意为高质量的游戏买单，是促成近年来上海出品的游戏频频“出圈”的主要原因。在过去，消费者主要通过手机内置渠道接触游戏，上海在发行渠道上并不占优，伴随着TapTap、B站等隶属上海的社区型平台的诞生，米哈游、莉莉丝、鹰角、叠纸这四家被誉为“上海F4”的游戏公司，开始发力。
From miHoYo's perspective, consumers are more willing to pay for high-quality games, which is a major factor behind the frequent success of games produced in Shanghai in recent years. In the past, consumers primarily accessed games through built-in channels on their phones, where Shanghai did not have a significant advantage in distribution. With the emergence of community platforms like TapTap and Bilibili, both affiliated with Shanghai, miHoYo, Lilith Games, Yoozoo Games, and Hypergryph—referred to as the "Shanghai F4" gaming companies—have started to exert their influence.

“上海游戏公司主要做内容，而且很有创新精神。”殷春波说。比如鹰角网络的《明日方舟》开拓了二次元塔防游戏先河，椰岛游戏的《江南百景图》则从江南文化中汲取灵感，在放置类游戏中独树一帜。
"Shanghai gaming companies mainly focus on content and have a strong spirit of innovation," says Yin Chunbo. For example, Yoozoo Games' *Arknights* pioneered the genre of two-dimensional tower defense games, while Coconut Island Games' *Jiangnan Baijingtu* drew inspiration from Jiangnan culture, standing out in the world of placement games.

随着数字经济的发展，游戏影响力也从线上向线下铺开。在设计《原神》时，其东方风格的世界区域璃月的风格参考了张家界、黄龙和桂林等地的景色，而在上海市相关主管部门的牵线下，米哈游把游戏中的“传送点”实物搬到了桂林象山景区，双方以此宣传，欢迎全球玩家实地“打卡”、领略中华之美。
With the development of the digital economy, the influence of games is spreading from online to offline. When designing *Genshin Impact*, the Oriental-style world region of Liyue drew inspiration from scenic spots like Zhangjiajie, Huanglong, and Guilin. With the support of relevant authorities in Shanghai, miHoYo physically relocated the in-game "teleportation points" to the Guilin Xiangshan Scenic Area. Both parties used this collaboration for promotion, welcoming players worldwide to visit in person and experience the beauty of Chinese culture.