New Animal Crossing-Style Game From Genshin Impact Studio Potentially Leaked

By Ricky Frech

Developer miHoYo has been on a roll since launching Genshin Impact in 2020. That game took over a massive segment of the gaming population after it released and miHoYo followed it up with Honkai: Star Rail, which included Genshin gacha mechanics, but provides players with a science fiction tilt. Now, it looks like miHoYo will be following that up with something that could be much different. A recent leak has revealed that the next game from the team will give fans an Animal Crossing-like life sim. As ever, be sure to take these leaks with a hefty grain of salt until they're confirmed by the development team.

This leak comes courtesy of SipSipStefen on Twitter. Alongside the reveal that it's "a direct Animal Crossing competitor," the original tweet included a collage of images. That image has since been taken down from Twitter, but if you search for it, you should be able to find it relatively easily. Even if you can't find them, the Animal Crossing inspiration is immediately clear. The character is that same short and stubby style and you can see the basics of house-building even in these leaked screenshots. 

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Of course, the larger question is what exactly will miHoYo do with this life sim game? After all, the genre doesn't seem to fit into the traditional gacha style the developer likes to use. Will they put your neighbors into a loot box or have randomized items to decorate your house with? Hopefully, that's the kind of stuff that miHoYo will reveal when and if this game is announced. Speaking of that, the announcement might be coming relatively soon. Another Twitter user that goes by Ubatcha1 said in May that they had heard about something similar and, as mentioned above, miHoYo has taken the original image down. That tells us that it is likely a real game and an announcement could be coming later this year, though it could just as easily be announced further down the line depending on how development goes.

While we wait for the announcement, Genshin Impact is about to kick off its Summer Festival Series. That'll take place in Paris, New York, and Berlin throughout July and provide players with several different events to participate in. Honkai: Star Rail, for its part, launched in February and has been racking up user milestones since. Both games are available on PlayStation, mobile, and PC platforms.

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