Genshin Impact, the open-world adventure RPG released on the Epic store on June 9, 2021, and now miHoYo has transferred the publishing rights to Cognosphere Ltd. The game is still owned and developed by miHoYo but the change of publisher could bring changes to the game along with Tears of Themis on mobile.
Change in publisher and the affects it makes
The listing on the Epic Games Store mentions Cognosphere as the publisher while the developer is miHoYo Limited. The payments are also being directed to Cognosphere as opposed to miHoYo as reported by multiple players.
On November 24 when announcing the ability to make in-game purchases for players who downloaded Genshin Impact from Epic Store, it was clearly specified that the publisher is being changed to Cognosphere Ltd. Going forward they will be responsible for publishing work on various platforms. miHoYo has promised to maintain the quality of their publishing even after the change. Another miHoYo title, Tears of Themis saw its publisher being changed to Cognosphere, though it was done on the google play store.
Fans of the game have been looking for answers as to why miHoYo transfers publishing rights to Cognosphere Ltd and what implications will it have on the future of the game. While miHoYo has not officially disclosed the reason, speculations based on the trends of the mobile gaming industry suggest it is just a loophole to avoid restrictions.
Restrictions on games
Over the past two years, the Chinese government has put several restrictions on how a game or any other medium can be portrayed in public, like not allowing effeminate portrayal and other perceived science content. The rules and regulations have also been extended to limit the time spent by minors on video games and have asked studios to ensure that the rules are followed by integrating safety checks in their apps.
Additionally, multiple countries have voiced their privacy concerns on apps coming from Chinese developers. This has led to losses to the company and in some cases a complete ban on the app. To counter this, studios have started operating out of the country. Since the restrictions only apply to games published in China, the impending problems can be dodged by bringing in a publisher on board who is based out of China.
In the case of miHoYo, Cognosphere a company registered in Singapore helps in avoiding meddling from the administration. Previously, Tencent did the same when it released the global version of Honor of Kings, Arena of Valor was one of the publishers was Netmarble.
According to a post on Reddit, Cognosphere is a subsidiary of miHoYo that recently applied for trademark registration.
With the publisher for Genshin Impact and Tears of Themis already changing it can be expected that soon the same will come into effect for Honkai Impact. While the change does not affect the core gameplay but players can expect more artistic liberty as miHoYo can now distance itself from the censorship.
Do you think the games will be affected by this change in publisher? Let us know in the comments below.
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