If you’ve spent dozens of hours climbing Mondstadt’s cliffs, hunting for Liyue’s hidden chests, or arguing with Paimon over who stole the last radish stew, you’ve probably wondered at some point where was Genshin Impact made. The game feels so culturally diverse, with references to everything from Chinese mythology to European medieval history to Japanese folk tales, that it’s hard to pin it to a single location at first glance. I’ve been a Genshin player since the day it launched, and I used to assume it was built entirely in one small office in Shanghai, until I started digging into dev interviews and behind-the-scenes clips. What I found was a far more global operation than I ever expected, with teams spread across multiple countries contributing to every six-week update we get.
Where Was Genshin Impact Originally Made?
Genshin Impact’s core development first kicked off in 2017 at the Shanghai headquarters of HoYoverse, the studio formerly known as miHoYo. The three founders of HoYoverse all graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and they built the company from a small indie project to a global gaming giant right in the city. The core Genshin Impact intellectual property is fully owned by HoYoverse, a company headquartered in Shanghai, China, so that is the official answer if you’re looking for a single location of origin.
The initial 30-person core team in Shanghai built the foundational systems that make Genshin unique, from the elemental reaction combat system to the overarching story of Teyvat and the Seven Archons. They also led the design for the first three regions released at launch: Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma. Even as the team has grown to thousands of people around the world, the Shanghai office still serves as the central hub that coordinates all global development efforts.
That doesn’t mean the game is exclusively made in Shanghai, though. As Genshin’s player base grew to hundreds of millions of people across 200+ countries, HoYoverse expanded rapidly to set up regional offices that could contribute specialized skills and cultural context to the game.
Global Teams That Contribute to Genshin Impact’s Development
Today, HoYoverse has 10+ offices spread across Asia, North America, and Europe, each with a specific role in building and updating Genshin Impact. I was shocked to learn how specialized each team is, and how much their unique perspectives shape the little details we notice in the game every day. Some of the key contributing teams include:
You might not pick up on these cross-regional contributions during casual play, but small details give them away. The Gothic architecture in Fontaine’s Court of Fontaine city, for example, was designed by team members in Montreal who grew up visiting similar historic buildings across Western Europe, so the little touches like wrought iron railings and cobblestone streets feel far more real than if they’d been designed exclusively by a team that had never seen those structures in person.
Why Genshin Impact’s Cross-Regional Development Matters for Players
This global development setup isn’t just a fun fact—it directly impacts the experience you have playing the game every day. The biggest benefit is that the game feels accessible and relatable for players no matter where you live. You don’t have to be from any single country or cultural background to connect with the story or characters, because there’s something that feels familiar for almost everyone. Liyue’s arc about balancing traditional customs with economic progress resonates deeply with many Chinese players, while Mondstadt’s focus on individual freedom and rebellion against authority hits close to home for many Western players.
There are small downsides to this cross-regional structure, too. Sometimes localization gaps lead to inconsistent translations across different language versions, or a joke that lands perfectly in Chinese falls flat in English because the reference doesn’t translate. I’ve run into this myself when comparing voice lines for Zhongli between Chinese and English: the core personality is the same, but some of his subtle poetic references to ancient Chinese literature are lost in the English translation.
This global structure is also the reason Genshin is able to stick to its strict six-week update schedule with almost no major delays. Teams working across different time zones can pass tasks off to each other as their workdays end and begin, so production on new content moves forward 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a far more efficient setup than most single-location game studios use, especially for a game as big and content-heavy as Genshin.
Common Myths About Genshin Impact’s Origins, Debunked
Since Genshin has such a global development structure, there are a lot of common misconceptions floating around about where it was made and who makes it. Let’s clear up a few of the most common ones I see shared online all the time.
The first myth is that Genshin was made in Japan, because of its anime art style. It’s easy to see why people make that assumption, since anime is most commonly associated with Japan, but that’s just a creative choice from the dev team. The anime art style is not an indicator of where the game was primarily made—the core development was led out of Shanghai, and the Japanese team only contributes to specific parts like audio and some character design.
Another common myth is that all Genshin content is made exclusively in China, so it’s full of hidden political messaging. I’ve played every version of the game since launch, and I’ve never seen any content that feels like it’s pushing a specific political agenda. The global teams have oversight over all content released in their regions, and the game’s story focuses entirely on universal themes like friendship, justice, and fighting for what you believe in. It’s just a fantasy game, not a political tool.
The last myth I see all the time is that HoYoverse is a small indie studio that made Genshin on a tiny budget. That was true for their first few games, but Genshin had a reported $100 million development budget before it even launched, and they spend hundreds of millions more every year on updates and server costs. They now have over 4,000 employees across the world, making them one of the largest mobile game studios on the planet.
At the end of the day, asking where was Genshin Impact made doesn’t have a simple one-word answer. Its core development started in Shanghai, China, but it’s been a global collaborative effort from the very beginning, with teams from four different continents contributing to every part of the game we love. That global collaboration is exactly why Genshin feels so unique, and why it’s been able to attract hundreds of millions of players from every corner of the world. Next time you’re exploring a new region or laughing at a silly event story beat, take a second to appreciate the hundreds of devs across the world who worked together to make that moment happen.