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In February 2022 miHoYo, the Shanghai developer of Genshin Impact, launched a new brand, HoYoverse. PocketGamer.biz reported that the company would keep the miHoYo name in China while HoYoverse became its international name, and that the English sites for Honkai Impact 3rd, Tears of Themis and Genshin Impact had already switched to the new URL and logo.

The South China Morning Post framed it as a metaverse brand, the latest sign that Chinese tech firms were embracing the virtual world. MiHoYo, founded in 2011, employed 4,000 people globally, was recruiting 70 new positions in content production, marketing and programming for the brand, and was the third-largest Chinese mobile game publisher in January, behind Tencent and NetEase.

Co-founder and chief executive Cai Haoyu explained the mission in a statement quoted by both outlets: to create a vast, content-driven virtual world that integrates games, anime and other entertainment, giving players a high level of freedom and immersion. The company said it would focus on research in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and pipeline construction to produce enough content. PocketGamer.biz listed the range beyond games: the virtual character Lumi, the N0va Desktop app, anime, manga, light novels and music.

HoYoverse is a name of its moment, coined at the peak of metaverse enthusiasm. Its value is less in the suffix than in the separation. A distinct international name gives the company a brand for overseas players and partners while keeping its domestic identity intact, a useful buffer for a Chinese company growing fast abroad.

The name keeps the Hoyo sound fans already knew, which is smart. The verse is the weak part, a fashionable suffix that dated quickly. Fortunately the games, not the corporate label, are what players actually care about.