The Story Behind miHoYo, the Company Behind the Former Body
In the early days, the team relied mainly on prize money from various startup and innovation competitions — even the company’s registered address was won through a competition. Unlike many other teams, they didn’t cash out; instead, they reinvested the winnings to develop their own game engine and found the company. Although their early startup attempts failed, they leveraged their past achievements to raise 1 million yuan in angel investment — their only round of external funding (and a significant one, at 15% equity). From then on, things went smoothly.
Their entrepreneurial journey involved refining a game character design that would eventually become the signature style carried over to Genshin Impact. Genshin Impact was originally titled Honkai 4, but its launch was stalled due to concerns that the IP relied too heavily on a single franchise — just Honkai. So they rebranded it as Genshin Impact.