| Hi all, it's Zheping in Hong Kong. Take a moment to stop thinking about the U.S. election. Imagine instead a fantasy world with dragons and magic, grassy plains and glittering oceans shadowed by tall, sunlit clouds. You're there to rescue the kingdom from an evil god who's stolen your beloved, and you get to slay a couple of wacky goblins along the way. That's the premise of the recently released video game, Genshin Impact, a Chinese Zelda-lookalike that's taking over the world. Genshin, created by little-known Shanghai studio MiHoYo, launched at the end of September as a first-person action-adventure game for PC, consoles and smartphones. In its first month, the game generated nearly $250 million in global player spending across Apple Inc.'s and Google's app stores, according to Sensor Tower estimates. That's more than any other mobile game during that period. It's also three times what Nintendo Co.'s 2017 mobile hit Fire Emblem Heroes made in its first month. And those figures don't even include Genshin's sales on PC or PlayStation 4, where the game is also popular. This month promises to be flooded by video game news, with both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X out next week, amid global lockdowns. Genshin's developer has said it will be ready to capitalize on the excitement with support for the PlayStation 5. So it's especially worth taking a look at China's biggest global game launch of the year—if not ever. Genshin is built using a profit model called gacha, with origins in Japan. The game is free to play, but once players are there, they spend lavishly to unlock loot boxes that come with rare characters and advanced weapons. One streamer on YouTube said he spent $400 in one day on Genshin and still hadn't managed to snag his favorite character. The game's creator MiHoYo started in 2011 as a student business project among three coders and gaming fanatics. It now has a team of more than 1,000 people and in 2018, made nearly $300 million in revenue, its co-founder told local media. The company's earlier hit in China—another gacha game featuring gun-wielding anime women—had to modify some content after regulators deemed it inappropriate to minors. The new Genshin Impact has encountered some controversy, too. The game drew fire for borrowing elements from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including its climbing mechanics and cartoonish art style.Some players have reported that the game's chat function censors politically sensitive terms like "Hong Kong" and "Taiwan," even for people outside China. In some ways, the success of Genshin reflects the growth and strategy of China's broader gaming and internet sector. The industry has thrived by taking proven hits and repackaging, adapting or improving them. For example, Tencent Holdings Ltd. found global success by co-creating the mobile editions of games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Call of Duty. Meanwhile, ByteDance Ltd. acquired Musical.ly and turned it into the viral short-video sensation TikTok. Personally, I downloaded Genshin on my phone but have so far resisted the urge to open my wallet for it. I'm OK with just playing every so often, while I wait for the Zelda sequel on Switch. As a momentary distraction from the circus of U.S. politics, the free version works pretty well. —Zheping Huang | 
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