Chinese video game maker MiHoYo, developer of hit mobile title Genshin Impact, has launched a global metaverse brand called HoYoverse, in the latest sign that tech firms in China are embracing the virtual world.

“Our mission in establishing HoYoverse is to create a vast and content-driven virtual world that integrates games, anime, and other diverse types of entertainment, which will provide players with a high level of freedom and immersion,” Cai Haoyu, co-founder and CEO of MiHoYo, said in a statement on Monday.

Cai said the company, founded in Shanghai in 2011, would focus on technical research and innovation in fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and pipeline construction “to ensure that sufficient content is created to meet the expectations of players worldwide”.

MiHoYo, which employs 4,000 people, is recruiting 70 new positions in content production, marketing and programming for the new brand, according to HoYoverse’s career web page. Most of the jobs are based at its overseas offices, which are in Singapore, the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea.

In a recent report from Sensor Tower, MiHoYo ranked third in global revenue among Chinese mobile game publishers as of last month, behind Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings and NetEase.

MiHoYo’s main game products, Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd and Tears of Themis, helped boost the publisher’s revenue by 52 per cent in January over the previous month, the report said.

A screen shot from the hit mobile video game Genshin Impact. Photo: Handout

The company’s efforts align with the larger trend of Chinese video games increasingly gaining a foothold in overseas markets.

“Chinese game companies could enjoy even better prospects in future under encouraging policies for games to go overseas and the large space for improvement with mobile gaming infiltration rate and payment,” Chinese brokerage firm Citic Securities wrote in a recent research report.

Citic forecast that the mobile games revenue of Chinese publishers could reach US$32.9 billion in 2025, which would be double that of 2021.

Last July, MiHoYo was named by China’s Ministry of Commerce as a “key culture export company”, along with about 300 other “soft power” firms, and Genshin Impact was on a list of “key culture exports”.

MiHoYo’s three co-founders, who met while studying at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have often referred to The Walt Disney Company as a business “role model”.

“A lot of us watched Disney cartoons as kids, and watched Disney films as adults after we had our own kids, [and] we will bring them to Disneyland,” co-founder Liu Wei said at the 2019 China Game Industry Annual Conference. “Disney is successful not only because it delivers products, but also American culture and values.”

China’s video gaming industry is under pressure due to the tightening of gaming title licences since 2018, which has caused tens of thousands of firms to go out of business. However, Liu told local media The Paper in 2019 that MiHoYo may even benefit from the crackdown as the company is focused on the quality, not quantity, of its games.