Work begins on new ‘AAA’ shooter title
MiHoYo, the Chinese developer behind juggernaut mobile release Genshin Impact, has expanded into the west with the opening of a brand new studio in the game development hub of Montreal, Canada. MiHoYo hopes that the new site will house over 100 employees by 2024, with the studio starting preliminary work on an as-yet-unnamed AAA paranormal shooter.
“We are committed to publishing our games globally across console, PC, and mobile platforms, owing to our thriving in-house distribution capabilities,” stated Forrest Liu, co-founder of miHoYo, in a statement to Montreal International. “We have gained a plethora of game development and operations experience as a result of Genshin Impact’s recent global release, which we can harness to create even higher-quality games to our players.”
“Montreal is home to a thriving game development community and is well-known for its world-class universities. We deeply value the expertise and creativity that the local ecosystem provides and believe it will empower miHoYo to create games with their imagination.”
The new site is miHoYo’s first major studio in the western world, and will work alongside miHoYo China and other teams to produce new titles for the studio. Genshin Impact — which currently boasts somewhere in the region of nine million daily players — has been an absolutely staggering success for miHoYo, and is clearly a large part in allowing the developer to expand its global network, venturing outside of China and into one of the hottest cities for game development — with Montreal also housing studios for Ubisoft, Haven, Amazon Games, Gearbox, and Tencent’s TiMi Studio.
[Via GamesIndustry.biz]