Zenless Zone Zero, NTE and the new wave of Chinese games pushing the limits of free-to-play | Opinion

Since MiHoYo released Genshin Impact in 2020, an irreversible shift in perception happened across the gaming industry and among many gamers: free-to-play mobile games can actually be good?!

I'm being a bit cynical here, as it is undeniable that quality free-to-play mobile games were produced before, but Genshin Impact pushed the envelope. It set a new benchmark for what could, and would, be expected from a free mobile game: AAA-like production and presentation levels, an expansive open-world to explore, rich storytelling and lore, quasi-universally appealing art style, gameplay and progression that don't necessarily rely on endless grind and cheap loop mechanics, and yes, gacha elements.

Arguably, Genshin Impact had all the ingredients of a fully-fledged AAA console/PC game. Even more ambitiously, MiHoYo released the game across different platforms: mobile (iOS/Android), PC, PS4 and PS5. While not unprecedented, this distribution approach, coupled with all its aforementioned elements, propelled the game to immense success worldwide (almost 60 million people are enjoying it nowadays). It was a disruptive launch, and sent waves across the industry.

Since Genshin Impact, MiHoYo followed its own formula releasing other ambitious titles sharing some of the same elements – 2023's Honkai: Star Rail and this year's Zenless Zone Zero – and more Chinese studios followed suit.

Wuthering Waves, an open-world RPG developed by Chinese Kuro Games released back in May, with over 30 million registered players at launch. That title more or less follows this trend, but even more so does the recently revealed Neverness to Everness. (Yes, that's a real title.)

Neverness to Everness (NTE) is developed by Suzhou-based Hotta Studio, makers of Tower of Fantasy – a title that also shares some similarities with Genshin Impact and other games from this 'new wave.' A long gameplay trailer was released, showing what some people online are describing as an "anime GTA 6 before GTA 6." The 13-minute video shows us a sprawling open-world that mixes fantastical elements with Japanese futuristic aesthetics, cyberpunk, and gameplay that goes everywhere from GTA, to Persona, multitudes of JRPGs, action adventure and more.

It's a lot, it's very busy, overwhelming even perhaps. But it's also, very enticing, extremely ambitious, and yes, free to play. And it will be available on mobile, PC and consoles.

So, if you're a developer of $70 AAA console games, are you feeling the pressure yet? You should be. I would argue that games like these are literally giving more traditional publishers and developers a run for their money, as more and more gamers are left wondering why they should pay a premium for games, when titles such as Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero and soon-to-release NTE are free.

As has been discussed on GamesIndustry.biz on multiple occasions in recent weeks, these games are certainly a more tempting alternative to the $20 iOS ports of blockbuster console hits, which have (perhaps unsurprisingly) struggled to sell.

I'll emphasize again that most of these free-to-play Chinese games are following similar distribution strategies to release their titles across different platforms. This allows an expansion of the traditional audience for these kinds of games, which commonly would be associated with mobile, but it also pushes more core gamers from PC and consoles to crossover into mobile. The results and rewards from this strategy are yet to be seen in their full potential, as future iterations of these IPs will benefit from massive audiences that we have yet to fully realize in our current state of the industry, I think.

China Dev Speed

'China Speed' is a common saying used to explain how fast everything happens in China, in particular since the turn of this century. Ideation, R&D, production and distribution seem to happen almost overnight in China, with different Chinese brands quickly outpacing international counterparts in different industries. The same is happening in the gaming industry, to some degree.

As I mentioned, Genshin Impact came out in 2020. Late 2020. That's less than four years ago, and already the impact and influence from this new wave of Chinese games has been so profound in the industry. These are some of the most popular games on the planet right now. How can the output be so immense in such a short period of time from a handful or less of studios? China Speed.

Not to get into stereotypes and too many generalizations about China, its society and Chinese people, but it is well known how aggressively competitive life and work can be in modern bustling China. While a lot of developers in other markets sometimes get caught up and entangled in discourse, local policies, regulations and other societal and cultural issues, in China things get done. For better or worse, there is this general mindset of just doing it. Today. Now. No reason to wait.

So, if you're a developer of $70 AAA console games, are you feeling the pressure yet? You should be

This applies to Chinese devs as well, as we see entire AAA-type productions being developed and launched sometimes within a year of development. A huge contrast to equivalent projects elsewhere that often take two to three years at least to be concluded. This is not just about 'hard working', sacrifice, or exploitive work conditions – I would argue it's mostly about working smart. Chinese developers are early adopters with new tools and technology, often optimizing existing ones and creating their own in-house. If something exists that can speed up the process and make things more efficient, you can be certain that Chinese developerss will embrace it whenever and wherever possible. I could go on about this and how AI tools are being used in China to a vaster degree than anywhere else, but that's an entirely different (and very big) topic in itself.

I will mention, however, that from a managerial perspective, Chinese corporations generally tend to be extremely efficient in ensuring productivity: from top to bottom, and going from recruiting to final output, there's a commonality in management methods in most medium-to-large sized companies in China that virtually every local staff is familiar with, and facilitates the work flow. And I say this as someone who has been working in Chinese corporations in China for the past 13 years.

Identity Crisis?

Not all is rosy and positive regarding this 'new wave of Chinese games,' as I call them. Most of these anime-looking, gacha-centric, open-world RPGs are visually very similar to each other. The use of anime art style is derivative in itself, as it is totally informed by Japanese video games, animes, and manga. Even so, among different anime properties over the decades, different styles have been cultivated and developed by Japanese artists.

The impact and influence from this new wave of Chinese games has already been so profound in the industry

Chinese developers, however, seem to insist on sticking on a very particular style, and so far staying with it. This is creating an identity crisis among these games, as audiences wouldn't be blamed to have a hard time telling them apart from each other.

While these titles have managed to find an audience and, in some cases, immense success (for now), it is predictable that this 'stagnated' inspiration might become an issue, and lead to a quick saturation.

I see two outcomes as a consequence: Chinese games that adopt this aesthetic will eat up more and more market share from Japanese games and their audiences worldwide (some of these Chinese games are very popular in Japan already), or developers from China will eventually adapt and diversify their offerings. Most likely, I predict we'll see a mix of both happening.

No matter what happens, the creations of Chinese developers in these last few years have been irreversibly disruptive, proving that more can be done quicker, and at quality. Many international developers and publishers are still somewhat indifferent to this phenomenon, but they are remiss to be so.