Tencent Denies Suspending Development of Flagship Game That Rivals Genshin Impact

TiMi Studio, a video game development studio group under Tencent, was reported to suspend the development of a game project (internal code name: NXS) that was intended to compete with miHoYo’s Genshin Impact. The entire team shifted focus to another anime-style game project, and the former project leader He Jia has also been reassigned, according to a report by Chinese media outlet Speed Daily on April 24. Later, Tencent responded to Chinese media stating that this news is false information and that the project is still progressing normally.

In the report by Speed Daily, several Tencent employees stated that the NXS was originally designed as a 3A-level anime-style open-world game which was highly valued within the firm and considered one of their “Moonshot Projects”.

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The Moonshot Projects are what Tencent calls its flagship game development projects. Steven Ma, Senior Vice President of Tencent once publicly stated that there were several moonshot projects within the firm, and they hope to produce products to rival Grand Theft Auto or Cyberpunk 2077 in five to eight years.

An insider close to the NXS said that it had always been viewed as a flagship game by Tencent. TiMi Studio even promised He Jia an investment budget worth hundreds of millions of dollars for this project.

“The positioning of NXS in our Moonshot Projects is at least the top three, even higher than ‘Honor of Kings’ World,” said an informed source in the report who disclosed that NXS’s promotional video had been played during TiMi Studio’s annual meeting and received recognition from senior management.

According to the report, the use of the new UE5 engine – a fifth-generation gaming engine primarily utilized for developing gaming content and 3D graphics – proved too challenging for developers. As a result, they were unable to keep up with expected progress, ultimately leading to the suspension of development.

Another informant claimed reducing costs while increasing efficiency remains Tencent’s main topic this year; therefore “projects with uncertain progress will be temporarily suspended.”

The success achieved by miHoYo’s Genshin Impact has made various gaming giants hopeful of getting a share in the anime-style open-world game market, and Tencent is no exception.