MiHoYo's 8 in-development projects are exposed: The "Big Boss" really spares no expense in developing AI.

Today (May 27th), Mihoyo Recruitment released information about several of Mihoyo's ongoing pre - research projects. From this external information update and the fact that Mr. Cai (Dawei) mentioned investing 100 billion yuan in AI over three years at a recruitment sharing session, it's clear that AI will be a major direction in Mihoyo's future product exploration.

In the long recruitment poster released by Mihoyo this time, all of Mihoyo's publicly known pre - research projects are presented. In almost every product's keywords, you can spot the term "AI", and you can also see a growing variety of styles in Mihoyo's pre - research reserves.

It's hard not to wonder how far Mihoyo can go in the field of AI + games and in expanding its own boundaries.

Let's take a look at each project in order. First is "Honkai: Fateful Spirits", which has already undergone one public test. Although it has elements of spirit pets, strictly speaking, it's different from the concept of "catching pets".

From the description, you can tell that "Honkai: Fateful Spirits" emphasizes cultivation, world adventure exploration, and strategic combat gameplay. It also shows that the spirits will be deeply integrated with world exploration, which is a way to strengthen the connection between players and spirits.

The description of the popular art style is easy to understand. In most current spirit - cultivation games, the designs of spirit images are mostly simple, distinct, and popular. On a large scale, the "Pokémon" IP has endured for a long time, and more recently, "Roco Kingdom: World" has become extremely popular.

The part about AI is relatively routine, that is, the self - developed Agent platform, which uses AI as a tool to improve the production efficiency of game creators.

Currently, "Honkai: Fateful Spirits" regularly publishes optimization progress and directions to players in text and image form, and is conducting recruitment for a confidential test. As one of Mihoyo's earliest pre - research products, we may see the second public test soon.

The second pre - research product is the life simulation project "Stellaria Valley", which has undergone two rounds of public tests. With the two rounds of tests, we can clearly identify the keywords of this product: UGC, multiplayer life simulation, and a sense of companionship.

In my experience participating in the second test, I naturally spent a lot of time in "Stellaria Valley", fishing, chopping trees, farming, and decorating my planet according to my own ideas.

The application of AI is mainly reflected in the various NPCs in the game. From the recruitment information, it can be seen that Mihoyo wants to add a neighbor AI system to this project, enabling the NPCs in the game to understand players, remember events experienced with players, and have personalized interactions.

In other words, Mihoyo is trying to use AI to create more "lifelike" NPCs, which I think is one of the best carriers for the practical application of AI in games. During the test, you'll find that these NPCs are very popular among players. Players are very keen on talking to the NPCs in the game and hope they can remember the content of these conversations and gradually have a subtle influence.

The third pre - research product is "Varsapura", which has attracted great attention before. It is also a very strong competitor in the current urban open - world game market. As a new product led by Cai Haoyu, you can feel the pursuit of this product from the description in the recruitment information - a city open - world with a movie - level immersive experience.

From the description of the cultural sandbox, "Varsapura" will obviously be a product that attaches great importance to content. The application of AI is also used in the production workflow, trying to reshape the production paradigm of game industrialization. Obviously, for Mihoyo, they want to develop a new reusable workflow combined with AI through the product "Varsapura".

The fourth pre - research product is Mihoyo's pre - research on a realistic fantasy - style UE5 action game. Judging from the described type, it is very likely to be a multiplayer co - op game similar to the gameplay logic of "Monster Hunter".

Currently, from the description, Mihoyo is very likely to apply AI to the action logic of in - game monsters. Whether it's the ecological performance in the world or the action logic during battles with players, AI may play a role.

It's worth mentioning that not long ago, the trademark "Primordial Knot" registered by Mihoyo passed the review, and corresponding accounts have been established on social media platforms such as Bilibili. Currently, it is generally speculated that "Primordial Knot" may correspond to this realistic fantasy product.

Next are four pre - research products that Mihoyo has exposed less and whose progress is not as fast: a pre - research on a life MMO, a pre - research on a UE5 realistic shooting game, a pre - research on a UE5 3D MOBA game, and a pre - research on a UE5 sandbox game.

Currently, only the life MMO pre - research project has more descriptions. From this, we can directly see that Mihoyo wants to achieve a "second life" experience in this product.

You can see that the cultivation in this product emphasizes horizontal cultivation, which may refer to some real - world career development, such as art, science, etc., allowing players to play a completely different role from themselves in reality and exist and socialize in this virtual world.

Perhaps this is the experience that this product wants to pursue.

The descriptions of the other products are relatively few, with only individual keywords provided. However, from these and the products mentioned earlier, we can also summarize some changes in Mihoyo.

Firstly, there is a change in the development platform. From mainly using Unity in the past, Mihoyo now has a strong tendency to switch to UE5. This is easy to understand because UE5 currently represents high - quality graphics and high development efficiency in the industry context. Switching to such a platform is obviously a long - term development consideration.

Secondly, there is a change in game categories. You'll find that Mihoyo is no longer confined to the second - generation game category but starts to try categories such as life MMO, MOBA, and shooting, which may be less related to the second - dimension. Moreover, there are more diverse descriptions in visual styles, such as realistic, military - science fiction, and European - American stylized styles. It can be seen that Mihoyo wants to become a game giant capable of handling various categories in the future.

Thirdly, the application of AI still exists. Whether AI is used in development or in the player experience, you can still see the keyword "AI" in these projects that have not disclosed more information. The 100 - billion - yuan investment mentioned by Mr. Cai over three years has obviously already been applied to various projects.

To be honest, Mihoyo seems a bit complex to me now. It is no longer the "second - generation game giant" I used to know. It may even have more of the flavor of a technology company.

Anyway, this kind of attempt outside the comfort zone is a necessary step for Mihoyo to find growth in the current game industry and grow into a larger - scale game company.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Mobile Game Affairs" (ID: sykong_com) , author: Stephen. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.