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MiHoYo can’t do without Cai Haoyu, and this also applies to Project SH.
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Author | Dong Zibo
Editor | Cen Feng
Yesterday, miHoYo officially announced layoffs.
In 2022, the Internet industry is in a state of panic, and both large and small companies are talking about "reducing costs and increasing efficiency." Layoffs and even project cancellations are no longer news to game companies that lack game licenses.
However, this time for MiHoYo, the meaning is very different.
The axed project is "Project SH" (hereinafter referred to as "PJSH"), which is widely regarded by the outside world as the "new hope" of Chinese games.
As a key project of MiHoYo, "PJSH" has always been "half-hidden" to the outside world. People only know that it will be a two-dimensional style game developed by UE5, and it will be equivalent to the size and volume of GTA. How to play.
Industry insiders estimate that the "PJSH" team has more than 1,200 people, and they are all game elites from Shanghai and even China, making it one of the most elite game teams in China.
Considering the cost, it may be an order of magnitude higher than "Original God".
An elite team of 1,000 people, more than 2 years of development, and huge cost investment, only to have the project canceled. This result made the industry and players sigh.
MiHoYo's external policy is "Fail fast, learn fast", and it will bury projects that are "not right" decisively. However, when Leifeng.com sought external confirmation, they heard different voices.
MiHoYo internal news spread online
Rumor has it that the cancellation of "PJSH" has a lot to do with Cai Haoyu's departure for overseas.
Talking about the chilly gaming circuit in 2022, Chinese companies want to survive, and many choose to invest and build factories overseas, especially in Singapore.
MiHoYo is one of them. In July this year, miHoYo's branch in Singapore was completed with great fanfare.
It is true that the main body in Singapore can naturally help miHoYo, and local promotion in Southeast Asia can be "close to the water"; in addition, if employees are placed in overseas company structures, the money will also be in overseas accounts, and the tax will be higher than in China. There are many offers.
At the same time, there is a very attractive condition for bosses who set up entities in Singapore: after investing locally and meeting certain conditions, they will be eligible for Singapore's green card.
An insider said that many people left Singapore just for this green card. Many bosses of game companies in Shanghai have not come back since they left this year.
There are rumors that Cai Haoyu left China in June and no longer personally supervises domestic development.
MiHoYo is essentially a R&D-oriented company that takes outstanding product quality as its foundation. However, as mentioned in previous Leifeng.com articles,
Cai Haoyu, as the company's "chief producer", is the core of the entire company's project development.
It was also his characteristics of micro-management, hands-on approach, and careful consideration of every dollar that made the "Honkai Impact" series famous, and made "Genshin Impact" an international masterpiece.
As Cai Haoyu’s “personally driven” project, “Project SH” cannot be without him.
MiHoYo cannot fill the vacuum created by Cai Haoyu's loss of position.
A person familiar with the matter said that as soon as Cai Haoyu left Shanghai, the company's new project laid off 1/3 of its employees.
It is true that the progress of the "PJSH" project is not optimistic. Two and a half years have passed, and people familiar with the matter said that the development progress may be less than 5%. However, Cai Haoyu's "leaving the country and leaving his hometown" is likely to be the last straw for "PJSH".
Rumor has it that after Cai Haoyu leaves, more attention will be paid to overseas projects; there are also reports that "PJSH" will be handed over to an overseas 3A team recruited by miHoYo in North America. However, it is still unknown whether these predictions are true or not.
At the beginning of this year, a game company executive emotionally told Leifeng.com: MiHoYo will become the most powerful game company in the world in the future; if anyone competes with it for the top spot, it will only be Tim Smith. Epic under Vinnie has this strength.
The reason is that Cai Haoyu, as the soul of the company, is focused, persistent, and talented. As long as Cai Haoyu is at miHoYo, miHoYo will surely move to a higher level and bring Chinese games to the world.
Before 2022 is over, the future of miHoYo has become a lot more uncertain with the cancellation of "PJSH".
The author of this article, Dong Zibo, VX: william_dong, continues to pay attention to new changes and new stories in the gaming field. Welcome to exchange industry knowledge and gossip~
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