Former PlayStation executive and industry veteran Shuhei Yoshida attended WePlay Expo 2025 in China and shared his observations about the local games scene. In an interview he highlighted that the pace of development in China is remarkable:
The speed of development in China is simply astounding. They rotate personnel quickly, and the development process itself proceeds at a furious pace.
Japanese studios are not yet able to match the scale and tempo of these Chinese projects.
When I spoke with representatives from miHoYo, we discussed how challenging it is for Japanese developers to create games in miHoYo’s manner — not to mention the legal hurdles involved.
He thinks one of the Chinese industry’s advantages is the ability to recruit large teams who can commit long-term.
Last month HoYoverse announced Varsapura on Unreal Engine 5. Yoshida praised the project, suggesting the studio is exploring how far it can push a realistic, high-end experience — departing from the anime visuals of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.
Other Chinese and Korean developers release “miHoYo-like” titles, but miHoYo works to stay ahead of the competition.
Source: iXBT.games