Wuthering Waves’ Potential Is Terrifying miHoYo And It Shows

Since its initial debut in 2020, Genshin Impact has truly taken the throne of Gacha games, and ever since the release of Fontaine, the number of people playing has risen significantly. However, miHoYo has always used Genshin as a money-printing machine.

This is where Wuthering Waves came in, swooping the Gacha scene by taking genuine feedback, such as worthwhile rewards and free characters, from long-time fans of the genre and implementing them with finesse. And, as a new contender emerges, it’s clear miHoYo has taken notice and begins to take its position seriously.

MiHoYo’s Greed And The Dissatisfaction Of The Players

Genshin Impact has proven to be miHoYo’s most popular title, collectively generating billions upon billions of dollars worth of revenue per year and having a whopping 63 million playerbase in just the last month. It’s no surprise that miHoYo loves to have Genshin as a tool to make money. Even with recent patches such as the infamous 4.5, the game has printed over $100 million in April. 

However, players have clearly become dissatisfied with a handful of niche events, few new character releases, barely any new areas, and generally minimal effort as the patches release, especially since Patch 4.4. The dissatisfaction comes from the lack of content present in the game, which is directly proportional to the rewards earned per patch. 

Of course, with barely over 50 pulls for free-to-play players every month, not everyone has the means to get the character released with each new update, further drying out what the game has to offer. Thanks to their success, miHoYo does not immediately have a reason to implement what players have been asking for either, which includes endgame content, innovative events, and especially more ways to earn primogems.

Despite the lackluster rewards and even after the Lantern Rite 2024 boycott, numbers are still higher than ever. The charts are booming. Simply put, players don’t have any effective ways to counter miHoYo’s actions because there wasn’t any real alternative to Genshin quality-wise… until now.

The Rise Of Wuthering Waves And MiHoYo’s Desperation With Patch 4.7

Let me take you back to before the 22nd of May, 2024 – the foreshadowing of a new open-world Gacha title to be released by Kurogames. With a higher resin cap, an interactive development team behind it, and insane marketing heights, Wuthering Waves initially looked promising. Genshin content creators started praising the game’s closed beta test for its high-quality character designs, visuals, and unique playstyle.

As WuWa’s release drew closer, the game had gathered over 30 million pre-registrations, triumphing over Genshin’s 10 million pre-registrations by roughly thrice the size. As Wuthering Waves launched, the game gathered wonderful feedback, and while still suffering launch-day errors, the game is generally crafted brilliantly with less money-hungry mechanisms and honest rewards.

loving literally everything about Wuthering Waves
byu/sludgebeard inWutheringWaves

A sizeable chunk of Genshin’s fanbase, including content creators like Zy0x and Techtone, is moving towards a better experience with developers who value the player’s enjoyment. With its unique art direction and rewarding exploration system, it’s safe to say that nothing is stopping Wuthering Waves from adding extremely innovative features and a very polished world that even a loyal Genshin fan would be excited to delve into.

After seeing WuWa’s success, miHoYo became desperate and promptly made new changes. With the premiere of Genshin 4.7’s developer live stream and leaks suggesting they announce an increase in the daily resin and character level cap, endgame content, and several visual improvements, it’s clear they don’t want an underdog story. However, some of these changes are still underwhelming and downright shady.

The increase in daily resin is nothing to be excited about, as it doesn’t speed up the time for regenerating resin, making it worthless for players who log in more than once a day. Besides that, the endgame content is not necessarily endgame—the difficulty is more or less just a bit more challenging than that of the Spiral Abyss Floor 12.

The biggest tell of this entire drama was the day before WuWa’s release when Genshin announced a minuscule resin increase. Players were quick to catch on to these tactics and publicly called MiHoYo out for it—and rightfully so.

What people don’t understand about the increased resin cap
byu/Silweror inGenshin_Impact

Conclusion

I love Genshin Impact, its regions, the archon quests, and so much more, but to see such a money-hungry corporation putting this borderline masterpiece to dirt by deliberately not rewarding loyal players with unique content, we have no choice but to move on an experience which is smoother and gratifying.

As long as miHoYo continually fails to improve Genshin’s quality in terms of rewards, content, and overall experience and values its long-term player base, I think it’s safe to assume that Wuthering Waves will soon cause a coup de ’tat, claiming the title and position Genshin Impact held for so long.