miHoYo have announced the second closed beta test for the urban fantasy action RPG, Zenless Zone Zero.
Over the past several years, miHoYo, a Shanghai based outfit has seemingly catapulted themselves amongst the very top of the gaming space with some of the most profitable gacha games in existence, their initial success began back in 2016 with the release of Honkai Impact 3rd which continues to receive new updates frequently today.
The Chinese have seemingly caught onto the decline of western video games as ESG hedge funds got ahold of the gaming industry forcing them to “desexualize” and defeminize female characters, as it turned out the term “misogynism” doesn’t translate into Mandarin.
The whole premise of Honkai Impact 3rd is pretty simple, “action” mobile gameplay, flashy visuals and lots of pretty women to unlock via the in-game gacha pull system, with the game generating millions of dollars in monthly revenue 7 years after its initial release.
miHoYo then upped the anti with Genshin Impact in 2020, an open-world expansive RPG with a much greater focus on story, narrative (and grinding).
Genshin Impact receives regular update intervals providing new story elements, elemental types and subsequently new materials and gear to grind for endlessly alongside a plethora of new intricate characters to farm for via the in-game gacha mechanics, both large and small, male and female.
Genshin Impact is by far the most popular game miHoYo have produced to date, with over 140 million downloads to date, with the game overall generating well over $4 Billion dollars in revenue since its release back in September 2020.
If not for the obsessive grinding elements and predatory gacha nature of Genshin Impact, on a purely action focused narrative experience alone I would rate the game highly, but I cannot in good conscious actually recommend the game given its abhorrent microtransactional nature let alone the censorship of various character outfits to facilitate western sensitivities.
You’re most welcome to try the game out for yourself if you already haven’t via the usage of private servers which will allow you to bypass its gacha elements by unlocking every single character from the very beginning, using a private server will allow you to incorporate various graphical modifications and saucy character mods as well without fear of getting banned.
Genshin Impact however has fallen out of fashion, with the games monthly revenue figures from in-app purchases dropping severely down to just over $50 Million per month, miHoYo isn’t as large as other Chinese tyrants such as NetEase and Tencent but they’re punching well above their weight and frankly after three years of renowned success with Genshin Impact it’s time to move on and unleash another Chinese money printer.
Zenless Zone Zero is miHoYo’s next release, with the urban RPG having rather big shoes to fill, with the game undoubtedly targeting mobile platforms as well as the PC and probably eventually Sony’s PlayStation systems at a later date.
miHoYo have revealed that pre-game test sign-ups for Zenless Zone Zero are now available, but with no official date on when the second pre-game test will actually go live let alone the games eventual release date.
For comparison, Genshin Impact held three separate pre-game closed beta tests prior to the full release of the game back in September 2020, with the first closed beta test being made official as far back as June 21st 2019, over a year prior to the full games release.
If you’re willing to look past miHoYo’s censorship blunders, which is something I refuse to overlook myself, you can opt to signup for Zenless Zone Zero’s pre-game test and hopefully you receive an invitation, but I much prefer to hold my anticipation for NetEase and their open-world urban RPG, Project Mugen instead.
