Hoyoverse recently delayed the release of a major Honkai: Star Rail update by two weeks, sparking an outcry from fans who have speculated it was related to escalating political tensions between China and Japan.
As Hoyoverse continues to establish itself as a trendsetter, understanding the company – and the politics that drive it – is increasingly important to understanding the mobile games industry at large.
You first need to know a bit about Honkai: Star Rail’s publisher and its ties to China. Named Cognosphere and trading as Hoyoverse, the company is an international games publisher founded in 2022 by the Chinese development company MiHoYo following the massive success of its game, Genshin Impact. At present, Hoyoverse is headquartered in Singapore, but MiHoYo still operates offices out of various locations in China.
According to an official announcement, the studio delayed Honkai: Star Rail’s big 4.0 update to give players “a better experience in the next world.” Other than that, the developers have not confirmed any specifics as to why the team changed the 4.0 release date.
However, since Hoyoverse announced the delay and revealed more of the 4.0 content, fans have argued that the Chinese-based company delayed the game to soften the supposed Japanese-inspired elements of the game.
Lore drops and story connections present in earlier versions of the game suggested the new planet in 4.0 would be named Benzaitengoku and be inspired by Japan. However, the developers later revealed the new region would be called Planarcadia and an official developer livestream on February 6 showed it would have a generic futuristic city theme (and not be inspired by a particular region or culture).
Due to the perceived backpedaling in Japanese content, players (and leakers) have argued that it’s a way to lessen the Japanese influence in the game during a time where political conflict between China and Japan have grown increasingly tense following conversations about Taiwan.
It’s also striking given Hoyoverse and MiHoYo have always been unabashedly influenced by anime and Japanese media. Their games lean into anime-esque visuals and animations and the slogan of MiHoYo was and still is “tech otakus save the world.”
Mobilegamer.biz asked Hoyoverse for a comment on this story, and we will update this article if we hear back.
