Developer Aquaria explains how long it takes to create a patch

Full video with subtitles from Genshin FES courtesy of Rachii\_chan

[https://x.com/Rachii\_Chan/status/2007375300741738692?s=20](https://x.com/Rachii_Chan/status/2007375300741738692?s=20)

Commentaires

SanjiInHSR_662026-01-03 11:39

Ok, now I feel bad even more for the HSR team🥲.

WhyHowForWhat2026-01-03 12:14

I kinda dont after they are being so goddamn lazy. This is karma for being cheap especially in a freaking Fate collab story. How about funel some of those marketing resources to hire more creative people in dev and story front??

hoyoshill2026-01-03 12:18

You speak my words.

moopym2026-01-03 12:19

Have to agree, I honestly dropped the game due to the quality taking a nose dive. (A black screen to describe a hug, seriously.?) Not to mention they're allergic to making one off / sub areas, god forbid we use anything other than belobog for somewhere a bit cold

WhyHowForWhat2026-01-03 12:24

If elation is just rem 2.0, I hope they crash so hard they have to reevaluate their life choices.

moopym2026-01-03 12:36

🙏🙏 please let this happen it would be so fking funny

WhyHowForWhat2026-01-03 12:42

If it means they will be more creative like putting real fucking alien or robot for once, then yes I want them to crash and burn

Character_Recover2992026-01-03 12:26

Yes bro, the dev team that has to do overtime because of some political bs outside of their control decides how much money to invest

WhyHowForWhat2026-01-03 12:33

Oh so the reason Anaxa's sister and Phainon's kid form being so NPC coded, same pose syndrome, and fate mid collab story + "Britain" are because HSR team can predict that 1 japanese lady will make a certain statement about Taiwan? Holy shit at least if you want to glaze HSR, do it properly.

Character_Recover2992026-01-03 12:56

Shit on hoyo then, not on some random employees and developers that do work. Nowhere did i say that the fate collab or NPC character designs or black screens are good

KorochunUA2026-01-03 12:15

hsr devs: just slap black screen with white text, bloated with nonsence word.

Hey! Patch is done!

/s

WhyHowForWhat2026-01-03 12:39

We went from Aventurine having his own kid model to Phainon having NPC kid model. If that is not called the epitomy of sloth, especially to the ONE character that is the backbone of their own main story, Idk what is.

altezia_2026-01-03 13:45

fr it's like the budget for the game went down like half between penagoaty and midphorous

Hina2562026-01-03 12:19

Lol HSR team does nowhere near as Genshin Team for every patch, be real

jisooed2026-01-03 12:28

still

Hina2562026-01-03 12:33

Still what? They're the most lazy devs out of all hoyo games and it shows. Saying stuff like I feel even more bad for HSR devs under post about Genshin devs' work is ridiculous. One is an open world game with very frequent map extensions and more events and stuff to do and the other is game without an open world, barely any events, insane powercreep, really bad story presentation and lack of will to actually put an effort for the game despite earning the most of all hoyo games (ex. ridiculous how character like Phainon couldn't even get his child model in main story while Genshin did individual model for lego Albedo and cat wanderer just for event, ZZZ made child models for MC and Ye Shunguang just for a little moment of main story or for Lucia).

It's just disrespectful to even compare them at this point

tzuyuisababy2026-01-03 12:46

they've literally had to go back and reconfigure a whole version's worth of character designs and content from what we know. regardless of the (generously) 2 events they give that's a lot of work

Hina2562026-01-03 12:51

Those events are done way earlier. It isn't done now. Yes I feel bad for what is happening rn but it's only happening now. Those problems I've mentioned are present basically for years at this point. Also we don't know how 4.0 will turn out to be so there's no point in judging that rn. What is happening rn is result of exterior unexpected circumstances and it sucks for them, but we never seen this planet, don't even know how much they need to change, how much they need to do or if they even will have to do anything with it since situation is dynamic.

I feel sympathetic towards their situation now but they don't do as much as Genshin per patch at all, so this post doesn't apply to them for reasons I've written in my previous comment.

MaitieS2026-01-03 12:54

As someone who doesn't play HSR can you elaborate more?

tzuyuisababy2026-01-03 12:59

it has been said by a lot of reliable HSR leakers the reason the 4.0 patch is postponed is to take out the japanese influences of the new world (benzaitengoku). the world features many japanese characters like a sparkle SP (who just got dripped), pearl and yae sakura. the aesthetics of the world were also to very japanese.

now, we're getting planarcadia instead, which has not a trace of any japanese influences. it's speculated these changes are occurring because of the tensions between china/japan, but the end result is that the version has had to undergo several heavy changes before it can be released.

Yui_Kurata2026-01-03 12:49

It still sucks that ANYONE has to lose potentially months of work do to powers out of their control.
Get over yourself they are people just like the rest of us.

Hina2562026-01-03 12:57

I know they are, but the comment above me didn't specify what they meant. Also what is wrong about what I've written? It's a fact that they have much less job per patch than Genshin. Chill down. I feel bad for them for Japan situation but neither of us knows how originally that planet looked and how much they have to change (or even if they change it, because the situation is dynamic). What is happening rn isn't changing the fact they have less work to do than Genshin has on daily basis and it's one time thing

Particular_Web32152026-01-03 12:58

While i dislike HSR too no one should have had to hastily redo their entire new region due to political pressure

Hina2562026-01-03 13:01

I agree with that. This situation is messed up , but we shouldn't suddenly forget how they carry this game on a daily basis. I admit I wasn't only thinking about the Edo star situation while writing my comment. I was thinking about long term development because that was the topic of the main post. The fact that they have a bad situation and have to put in extra work at this moment doesn't negate what I've written tho.

WhyHowForWhat2026-01-03 12:37

No excuse, they reap what they sow. If they put more effort and not just put more effort on marketing, atleast I will have some good will for them. But after I witness their laziness, pitying them feels like an insult to other gacha dev who have less staff but puts better quality product.

Hina2562026-01-03 12:40

Exactly they get the most money yet it never shows in the game. It's basically a funding machine for their new games. I really liked HSR when it was launched but everything that is happening after that point is just a regression. Omega disrespectful to even mention them under that post tbh. If they did put at least a bit of the effort genshin devs do then this game would look way better than what we have today

Nightfall_aggro2026-01-03 12:51

What is this random hate boner Genshin fans have about star rail 😭 yall are literally the different cheeks of the same ass

Hina2562026-01-03 12:54

I'm not a Genshin fan xddd I'm playing most of hoyo games and I see differences between them. If you can't handle fair critique then it's your problem. The whole post was about Genshin and someone randomly jumps in to mention hsr and it's fine, but it's not fine to compare HSR and Genshin on Genshin sub? C'mon. Also it is a fact that Genshin has much more work to do per patch than HSR, it's not hate to state that

Nightfall_aggro2026-01-03 12:57

The op is feeling bad for hsr devs because of the edo star situation where hsr devs had to remake an entire region that takes years to make in a few months because of politics , they're not actually comparing the games wnd saying hsr is better😭

I'm saying your "criticism" is random and not what the comment was about,

Hina2562026-01-03 12:59

The comment didn't specify what they meant beside saying they feel bad for HSR devs. I admit I didn't think about only Edo Star. A post about Genshin was talking about long term development so I was thinking about long term development too. My mistake then, but still doesn't change the fact that they have way less stuff to do than Genshin

LilVaibhav2026-01-03 13:17

Let them hate, lol. People like us who enjoy both Genshin and HSR stay winning.

RenShimizu2026-01-03 12:35

Imagine if russia and china got in a fight they have to remove all russian influences from snezhnaya a month before release.

Probs not gonna happen, but it's about the idea.

Jnliew2026-01-03 12:53

The only possible reasons would be over something like Russian debt payments or Vladivostok/Outer Manchuria irredentism
We're multipolar-maxxing, anything's possible (gestures at what just happened

narium2026-01-03 13:22

I think they would be able to get away with not removing it because to the Chinese audience everything European sort of blends together, like how Western audiences have trouble distinguishing between the different Eastern cultures.

kaori_cicak9902026-01-03 11:42

What is different between shorter and longer version?

siriuslupin652026-01-03 11:43

I'm guessing a longer version would be a map expansion

Mihta_Amaruthro2026-01-03 14:09

This. You would not not believe how much effort and time goes into world design.

lostn2026-01-03 15:27

people here actually get mad that not every patch has a map expansion and call the devs lazy if they go 2 patches without a map expansion. Meanwhile, how many games actually pull that off?

It's really impressive how many map expansions we got during 4.x and 3.x. Natlan was called a lazy year because it was one expansion short (two if you consider the summer patch combining a summer area with a natural natlan expansion instead of being separate maps).

Fantastic_Stay80592026-01-03 11:43

Like the current patch and the upcoming one

khangkhanh2026-01-03 11:43

Filler patch with event story and non filler patch with AQ and other event story

Nexius_2026-01-03 12:04

dev time since nothing changes duration-wise for us players

Asleep_Bee_57842026-01-03 12:18

I'm guessing x.0 patches take 1 and a half year while the rest of the patches following that are half a year since everything that comes after the x.0 patch is just building on top of what x.0 already has

For example, v6.0 took 1 and a half year coz it's a new region and everything that comes with it, while 6.1 onwards are just adding to 6.0

KrzyDankus2026-01-03 12:26

6.0 and 6.3 are probably examples of a long version, while patches like 6.1 and 6.2 are shorter

Bierzgal2026-01-03 11:49

It's nice to know that the donghua is still in the making.

Outlander_TB2026-01-03 11:50

how they create one year worth of content in 42 days? cuz it updates every 6 week.

_Mysto_2026-01-03 11:51

They don't start development on an update after releasing the last one. This is common sense.

Outlander_TB2026-01-03 11:57

yeah sure but they make many patches like that within that one year, even if they make 6.3 patch 3 years ago it should never ever take more than 42 days itself to make those patches as an average.

Nunu56172026-01-03 12:06

Multiple teams working concurrently, also there’s lots of aspects to be development, kit testing & designing animations, map design, voice over work and translation, alpha testing etc

TashaStarlight2026-01-03 11:52

Multiple teams working in parallel?

SirGayington2026-01-03 11:52

is this bait? this is the dumbest thing ive read today

VictoryOk24602026-01-03 11:56

They start working on it years in advance. Nod-Krai to use as an example at the latest must have started Development around Arlecchino's release.

siriuslupin652026-01-03 11:56

He is explaining that lots of patches are being worked at the same time that take 6 months up to 1 year and 6 moths to fully complete and then they just release them every 42 days

So right now today, they are already working on a patch that will release next year in 2027

ankitjad2026-01-03 12:48

Well they actually put effort unlike in HONKAI star rail

Shahadem2026-01-03 11:53

I always said the 6 week cycle was way too short.

SecondAegis2026-01-03 12:16

Its basically impossible. Anyone who has tried their game at game dev (I tried to make a Pokemon fan game, it didn't work out) knows just how much time it takes.

I was going to make an example by saying that it's like expecting someone to make a new anime episode literally every week, but then I remember One Piece existed

MenmaOnyx2026-01-03 12:29

one piece the anime is very much padded and slow as heck, there is a lot of reused shots, way too extended shots, and way too long of a recap, the hype episodes go super hard, but everything in between is meh, also animators are well known to be overworked to hell and back too

KazakiriKaoru2026-01-03 12:36

One Piece is ass. A 24 min episode has 15 mins of recap an9 minutes of new content.

MenmaOnyx2026-01-03 12:47

read the manga, so much better.

BlowITA2026-01-03 13:33

Each team (design team, storyboard team, dev team, art team, qa team, and so on) probably still works on a 6-week schedule, since they work on every patch. Each team doesn't keep working (fully dedicated) on a single patch for 6-18 months, they likely are called at specific points of the "roadmap" of a patch to work for 6 weeks on that patch, and when they finish their tasks, they are called to work on the following patch, and so on, with a few jumps here and there to previously implemented patches to fix some bugs before release. But I also guess they likely have a dev team fully dedicated to implementing game mechanics/upgrading the engine who only works on bigger patches, and which is likely responsible for the 1-year increase of dev time on those patches, as in, they took the normal development cycle (6 months) and added the time spent by that other team who worked on building the foundations of the patch.

/u/Shahadem

wathkat2026-01-03 11:55

The time it takes to make these patches shows. I've been playing live-service games since Ultima Online and Genshin is, without a doubt, the most bug-free live-service experience I've been having throughout my decades of gaming.

kazuviking2026-01-03 12:03

Wuwa exists which makes genshin quality a laughing stock.

shirone02026-01-03 12:04

Wuwa glazer needs to stop shitting on genshin your game is unplayable on mobile, the optimisation is dogshit

FreezeShock2026-01-03 12:06

I don't know how the situation is now, but I played for a few months at launch. Even on PC it was dogshit, I couldn't play it for more than a few hours without it dropping frames.

EagleEye2502026-01-03 12:07

On PC it is still fine but on mobile it is still dogshit

Other-Marketing6442026-01-03 12:21

Tbh it just have a horrid launch altogether. It gets better since then

youarenotthatguybruh2026-01-03 12:07

Ps5 here is poop to play

Krystial2026-01-03 12:04

Broski wuwa is so buggy and laggy, they look pretty but their quality is so shit

Skykeeper222026-01-03 12:06

No way under a comment about lag and bugs and you bring up Buggering Baves

MaitieS2026-01-03 12:29

WuWa players seem to be really fucking desperate these days. Like imagine actually saying that "WuWa" has a better optimization than GI. Literally release was completely butchered, and they almost killed their game. 2.4 was also a huge performance hit, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more in the future.

RichSeat2026-01-03 12:07

Still credit where credit is due. Rolling out a patch every 6 weeks with new content this bug free isn’t easy.

I do not doubt your statement. Wuwa is an amazing game as well and the job they’re doing is phenomenal too. It’s IMO the stronger of the two titles but genshin is amazing as well.

__breadstick__2026-01-03 12:07

Isn't that the game that runs at 15fps on the map on PS5

kazuviking2026-01-03 12:10

And looks 100 times better than genshin does.

wathkat2026-01-03 12:13

Brother. You likely have an Intel Arc b580. Not shaming you, but either your wuwa runs like a PowerPoint slideshow that's thermal throttling, or just looks like a 2000's game.

saberjun2026-01-03 12:15

Bro you need to see a doctor to check your eyes. They ain’t functioning. And brain probably. Yours,sincerely

-_crow_-2026-01-03 12:21

it's just a different art direction, they're not comparable lol

MaitieS2026-01-03 12:31

WuWa literally looks like any Unreal Engine game out there, while when I look at Genshin I'm 100% sure that this shit is from Genshin. If I would see a new location from 3.0 without a prior knowledge that it's WuWa I would probably mention 5 different games, especially when WuWa can't even stick with their own vision, and are just copying other games...

Mysterious_Role66822026-01-03 12:24

UE5

jisooed2026-01-03 12:26

and runs 100 times worse 🥀🥀

siriuslupin652026-01-03 12:08

Are you lost? In case you didnt realize this is the Genshin impact reddit, unless Genshin impact lives rent free in your head and you are just a miserable person that loves to be cringe

TheBirdNamedSparrow2026-01-03 12:09

1. You're brainrotted

2. Wrong example

No_Explanation_68522026-01-03 12:10

Not saying the game is bad, but it contains a lot of bugs and mistakes.

wathkat2026-01-03 12:10

By quality, you mean making players download hotfixes almost everyday that seemingly make the game look and run worse, sure.

TheWorstEvieEver2026-01-03 12:11

I tried to play wuwa recently because I love gacha games and have nothing against wuwa at all. But the game was so ass. It's just flashy with the battle system and nothing else.

kazuviking2026-01-03 12:26

The story is actually feels like a story and not disney like. The map is alive as npcs roam the map and fight tracets or tracets fight for territory. You can follow npcs an they actually travel through the map unlike in genshin where they just dissapear after while. [NPCs actually look different.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lf-KCdPf3E) Not to mention the story cutscenes are leagues above whatever genshin can produce. Wuwa improved more in one year than genshin did in 5.

[Powerpoint vs actual map introduction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4NcBlfpss)

[Attention to detail](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNJq2qxMWA8)

[Some Call It Improvement Others Actually Mean It](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvHHCmfMeC0)

NoAcanthopterygii8762026-01-03 12:13

Wuthering Frames? Stuttering Waves?

I don't know about that

TrashySheep2026-01-03 12:14

Holy post history. If negativity had a human form, it would be yours.

Icy-Childhood-45872026-01-03 12:15

I see what you did there 😂. This is one way to spread hate towards wuwa and make the wuwa community look bad lol. Unless I am mistaken you don't really have anything against genshin do you.

moopym2026-01-03 12:16

I play both games and have only had lag and frame issues in wuwa

Tiny_Imagination_3282026-01-03 12:17

Classic kuro bot behaviour, roaming other games server and commenting about their game being best lmao. Do kuro bots even play their own game or they just roam other game servers cause they got nothing to play?? Get some education kid, tell your parents to give some basic level of education.

RidingEdge2026-01-03 12:17

5800X3D and a RTX 5090 and it's still stuttering and buggy bruh. Top quality bait.

Plenty_Airline_58032026-01-03 12:25

ddu and reinstall your drivers? i have a 7700x and 7800xt and it runs 200 fps at 1440p high. are you 4k 60fps?

kynovardy2026-01-03 12:18

Huh? I played during launch they had to do multiple patches per day to fix bugs

Nyanta3222026-01-03 12:20

LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wuwa literally looks and runs like shit on phones, as well as runs like shit on PC and is barely, barely playable on PS5.

Where's the Quality you speak of? And let's not forget the catastrophic launch of that game.

Go play your game with Mary Sue MC, Hype Moments & Aura farming story with mediocre writing and characters that never get any screen time and are forgotten about once a patch with them ends. All you have going for it is decent storytelling.

Izanagi322026-01-03 12:24

coming from a wuwa glazer, you look like an actual dumbass rn

jisooed2026-01-03 12:25

and they say genshin players are toxic

kuroemo2026-01-03 12:27

You did not say that

reaperhank2026-01-03 12:27

Sigh

Bait used to be believable...

Sufficient-Ad88252026-01-03 12:30

That game is for PC, the mobile optimization is ass!

KazakiriKaoru2026-01-03 12:30

Wuwa's story is a laughingstock

gna1492026-01-03 13:54

Ya, older gamers would know. I feel modern games spoil gamers too much and give off the illusion that it's easy for games to run smoothly

ChenMei272026-01-03 14:05

Honestly never encountered a single bug in Genshin for the 3 years I've played unless I go find them myself. I remember the Neuvy mermaid bug and honestly hoped that they never fixed that 😭💔

FlameDragoon9332026-01-03 15:49

so your NPC father-son duo didn't fly off during the Columbina festival? lol

Just kidding, I get what you meant, and I agree. I'm just poking fun at that one bug because it's so widespread lol.

Visible_Spray_6092026-01-03 15:52

Mine didn't, so imagine my surprise when I saw that happen to literally everyone of my friends and CC i follow🤣

ChenMei272026-01-03 15:54

Really? Never heard of this one. I played the AQ late so I blocked all socmed related to Genshin so I won't get spoiled. Maybe it was patched by the time I played it. I gotta have to search that now though 😂

NekooShogun2026-01-03 14:14

>Ultima Online

Unbelivably based. Never thought I'd see another Ultima Online fan here. I'm not an OG player as I was not alive during its golden years but I got into the Outlands server after playing U4 and 7. UO is probably the best online game I've played.

Titanium702026-01-03 14:34

Yeah it always so sad watching people demand Service-like update schedules from Indies or AA studios.
Not even most AAA ones have the people and are capable of this kind of output!

Curiousity10242026-01-03 15:18

Ohh, if you're in DNA community , you'll see they won't understand that part .

The_Wkwied2026-01-03 16:24

Have to agree. Has anything from Hoyo ever been delayed, even? The only delay I can think of that ever had an effect on genshin was the initial covid lockdowns, and that just delayed the next patch for two weeks or so.

They run a tight ship

Lacirev2026-01-03 11:59

It's honestly crazy to think how the hell they organise all these teams to work in parallel and still have everything pan out mostly okay

danking_donut2026-01-03 12:16

project managers. workers hate them but they're very essential to make development work smooth

Satsuasdfg2026-01-03 12:32

Nobody hates a good project manager, they take care of so much random stuff that the developers, designers etc can focus on their own thing. (source: software developer for more than a decade)

InnerCan22702026-01-03 13:07

[removed]

Yubbi452026-01-03 13:52

I can confirm this from manufacturing and business.

With good project managers, stuff gets done mostly on time, and people get along well.
Without project managers, there's rarely a defined timeline, millions of dollars go missing, and every interaction is an unpleasant dick measuring contest.

entropy5122026-01-03 16:33

Yeah. My current job is one of the first where the majority of the PEs and PMs are competent. It's so refreshing.

Sethyboy02026-01-03 17:50

Yea, my PM is the goddamn soldier meme.

ginongo2026-01-03 12:33

_competent_ project managers, workers hate the sit in the office and do fuck all project managers, not the ones that actually do their job

bitterbalhoofd2026-01-03 12:43

This. I can't tell you how many assholes I have seen during my lifetime that fucks up everything and claim any success themselves.

The good ones however praise the teams and make sure everyone feels comfortable and happy and never say it's because of themselves but that it was a team effort.

Sadly there are more bad than good ones.

RevolutionaryFall1022026-01-03 12:55

They did show the project manager in the livestream and she was asking how the snezhnaya designs were coming along lmao

TherionX22026-01-03 14:00

But shouldn’t the shnez designs be long done according to the statement in this post?

Mysterious_Object_202026-01-03 14:08

They're not gonna ask "hey hows celestia going along" on stream lmao

TherionX22026-01-03 14:11

Lmao actually true yeah

herminihildo2026-01-03 14:13

This is really a broad statement. It could be characters for next year (2nd batch). This could also be finalizing character studies or revisions.

We don't know their pipeline but I think they got it down to the T.

Releasing every 6 weeks for 5 years with consistency can do that. It's pretty impressive really.

RevolutionaryFall1022026-01-03 14:44

I forgot to add the part where she said finalizing, the designs were long done. She was probably asking about touchups

BlowITA2026-01-03 12:58

Who the f* hates a good project manager? We hate on project managers that don't do/don't know how to do their jobs well. A project needs to be well planned, the team needs clear instructions, a feasible roadmap, and to be shielded from random external factors/demands that take us away from our planned tasks. But if all the project manager does is ask "is X ready already?" all day everyday in long, dragged meetings, or keep asking "can you also do X?" (that wasn't in the initial plans and without even suggesting something to be removed to make space for it), or keep giving unclear instructions "do X in whatever way you can" (disregarding all possible conflicts with other tasks/systems), then yeah, we'll hate on that sort of project manager.

NoNefariousness21442026-01-03 15:57

> Who the f* hates a good project manager?

Well Phil Spencer bragged about how Xbox game studios were given plenty of "creative freedom" and hardly any oversight. This resulted in their AAAA studio The Initiative creating zero games in seven years and having Pefect Dark cancelled, along with 343 crashing the Halo franchise into the ground after messing up three titles.

Burntoastedbutter2026-01-03 13:09

Competent managers make it *seem* like they aren't doing anything useful or important. Idk if it's just me, but every now and then I see memes about "what managers even do" 😅

Incompetent managers make everything miserable because nothing runs smoothly at all, nobody knows wtf is going on, and everything clashes against each other lmao

Th3_Ch0s3n_On32026-01-03 13:18

Good manager: What do they even do?

Bad manager: WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY EVEN DO?

Know the difference

Ulq-kn2026-01-03 14:11

it's not that workers hate them but you very rarely find good ones at their job, i still think that's a very difficult job in companies with a lot of departments scattered, bad ones will just ask for update and add nothing else

Spoopy_Kirei2026-01-03 13:03

I admire through their level of performance.I can barely survive a single sprint

Mihta_Amaruthro2026-01-03 14:06

Ubisoft did this for *years* with *Assassin's Creed*. And it did work for some time...until it didn't.

kazuviking2026-01-03 12:03

But so low quality that is laughable it takes year and a half. It took 5 years for a single character to gain basic emotion toggles.

Krystial2026-01-03 12:06

? Even 1.0 characters had different expressions for diff emotions, what r u on about

kazuviking2026-01-03 12:12

Yeah no, wuwa had more expressions as jahoda in 1.0.

Krystial2026-01-03 12:16

? Broski, please, fix your grammar

Than, not as

Wuwa having more expressions doesn’t mean much when their story is so flat…

saberjun2026-01-03 12:20

Hope your expressive waifus sell. See you on next r/gachagaming monthly revenue list. I’m looking forward to your cute excuses

LifeIsHard19992026-01-03 12:20

wuwa dog barking again

shira10010012026-01-03 12:21

jahoda is better written than the entire wuwa cast

corecenite2026-01-03 12:13

op commenter doesnt get how actual process takes place lol

Ok-Contact61262026-01-03 12:19

Comparing a 5 year old game based on unity 2019 to a new gen game based on unreal engine 2023 is craaaaaazyyy. Also wuwa needs to focus on optimization 🤣🤣🤣

neuvvv2026-01-03 12:04

they might be working snezhnaya patches already

BloodAngelsAreCool2026-01-03 12:10

The first patches are likely already done at this point.

fuguelet2026-01-03 12:11

oh they've probably already been at it during fontaine

corecenite2026-01-03 12:12

fuck it. they've already started when we first step foot in Mondstadt

SnakeTGK2026-01-03 12:32

Concept designs for sure. When 1.0 released dataminers found the grey box of the Yilong Warf Harbor... released 3+ years later.

Moonie-chan2026-01-03 12:38

Sure they are. They realized they couldn't write teyvat storyline connecting all the dot with the remaining available region so that's why Luna was created to give time to explore other loose thread.

SecondAegis2026-01-03 12:15

It's a pretty common sentiment that by the time a region releases, the next one is already on development. We've known this since Genshin's first Beta, which had Ayaka to test out Inazuma even though that region wasn't in the beta. This information just gave us confirmation.

OneRelief7632026-01-03 16:33

We also already had very early leaked models of characters like Thoma Kazuha Shenhe and Yun Jin iirc

FlameDragoon9332026-01-03 18:31

RIP Mimi

rixinthemix2026-01-03 12:23

The livestream kinda alludes to this when the Project Manager starts asking about Snezhnaya character designs being finalized.

Alpha06Omega092026-01-03 12:33

They are likely done with shnez lol

melonsapphire2026-01-03 13:13

in the earlier years, i still remember when we players were still at early Inazuma patches (2.0-2.2), old trustable leaks said genshin devs had completed sumeru nation & characters modelling with only a few tweaks & improvements left, and were working for early fontaine designs at the time. So yeah, from this info alone I can guess snezhnaya patches are now in good progress and perhaps they are now starting to work for early designs for the next nation after snezhnaya (maybe new Khaenriah or celestia?)

tyjz73_2026-01-03 12:07

So Luna IV could have started development sometime around Arle's release?

MREAGLEYT2026-01-03 12:31

Correct, time adds up with moon lore crumbs

TetraNeuron2026-01-03 15:42

Doesn't that mean they're already working on post-Snezhnaya content right now

Someone please break into Hoyo office and show us their concept art!

commietaku2026-01-03 16:25

the hoyo office door is the new khaenri’ah door

TheCapybara92026-01-03 18:18

'Insert Let me In meme'

MREAGLEYT2026-01-03 17:17

Yup, also correct. That would mean they are tapping into the end of shneznaya by now. So exciting

New_Economist_94292026-01-03 12:41

Before

Jsprite097382026-01-03 12:43

Which kinda makes sense given her ties to the Crimson Moon

meove2026-01-03 14:35

im sure it takes year and half do to made but it does not include the time where it first release date. maybe before Fontaine

rloco2026-01-03 15:30

Yes, it seems the decision to create Nodkrai was made in Fontaine, not Natlan. Natlan was being developed in Sumeru or earlier, while Snezhnaya is already being developed and completed.

If GI is an open-world game, the reason changes are taking so long is due to the development time.

tyjz73_2026-01-03 15:37

Nod-Krai probably entered devlopment by late Sumeru. But the early planning and the idea to make it larger might have even been in Inazuma. After all, we know they started designing Fontaine back around 2020.

sampat62562026-01-03 16:48

Yeah, some evidence for that is early hydro archon leaks referred to Gravity, one of Columbia's mechanics.

Least_Egg_93712026-01-03 21:19

So that was just an accidental leak of Columbina’s kit during that a time.

sampat62562026-01-03 21:19

Exactly.

rloco2026-01-03 18:13

I think it was after the main mission in Fontaine. If you look closely, there's a moment without much action. That moment also happens chronologically before the legendary mission in Skirk. Coincidentally, it was in Fontaine that they realized they needed an extra story to tie everything together, and I'm sure Nodkrai was originally part of Snezhnaya and they just expanded it to fit this story.

redz752026-01-03 12:14

Yet some people still believe nod krai is a last minute addition 💀

Alpha06Omega092026-01-03 12:33

I'm pretty sure nod karai was always planned and existed, it was just meant to be after shnez in the unmarked Acts section, hoyo just put it ahead of shnez

I_am_indisguise2026-01-03 13:13

Or, I think it was supposed to be part of the Snezhnaya arc. Like how Metropide was part of Fontaine. So, we would have entered Nod Krai, stayed there for 1 or 2 patches, and then move to mainland Snezhnaya. So, they just took Nod Krai and extended that with all the other story plots that were missing or incomplete

KazakiriKaoru2026-01-03 12:34

Yep. Dumbasses, all of them.

Also, Nodkrai exists because some people don't play WQs and are lost on the lore.

Denshinu22026-01-03 12:46

I feel called out. But I do watch videos about the lore, I just hate when the gameplay is 90% silent reading, 10% walking to the next silent reading session. I do pay attention on voiced quests tho

ChenMei272026-01-03 14:13

Honestly same. I play the WQs but some terms just pass through my head sometimes. I just watch to MurderofBirds vods so I can actually understand the lore 😂

RidingEdge2026-01-03 13:15

Meanwhile, Sandrone bombards players with Narzissencruez lore and traveler talks as if we've already done the WQ lol. And elevated Albedo and Durin to main story character when their lore is only in limited events....

Rmivethboui2026-01-03 12:38

They probably noticed that they need to show the background lore to the forefront during Fontaine.

Low_Artist_76632026-01-03 18:07

Before that. When people got confused with false sky and Irminsul in Sumeru.

Herbata_Mietowa2026-01-03 12:59

Not the last minute, but definitely not planned during first 2-3 years. Even Hoyo themselves admitted that they had to add Nodkrai to connect all loose points

Th3_Ch0s3n_On32026-01-03 14:23

https://youtu.be/s9DnWjDZnmg?t=6m36s

There seems to be some plan involving Nod-Krai since the beginning. Maybe an expansion, not an entire region, but it is definitely planned

Herbata_Mietowa2026-01-03 16:57

It was rather a part of Snehznaya, the same like Meropide for Fontaine or Tsurumi for Inazuma, not an entire separate main version. But they decided to expand it and use at a place to fill all the blanks

TaiAnej2026-01-03 13:07

People mean that in the sense that it wasn't planned.

Ultradamo23062026-01-03 13:22

I mean it still could be a last minute decision but more at the time where they started to think about sneznaya

Tentative_Username2026-01-03 13:25

Nod Krai is a part of Snezhnaya. It's most likely been expanded to incorporate various other plot-lines instead of magically appearing out of nowhere.

Glass-Window2026-01-03 12:15

I wonder what the timeline for kit design is like.

Pinoy_20042026-01-03 13:57

Yeah I'm really curious, since I have a theory that Chasca, and Mavuika's kits were still going through major revisions during early Natlan.

I-came-for-memes2026-01-03 15:41

It's not a theory.

Kits are always getting revisions right up until the patch releases.

wewowe122026-01-03 15:56

Best example for that is Arle, she got like what 2 or 3 major revisions during beta?

dushanthdanielray2026-01-03 12:17

I used to work in live service games and can confirm that it could easily take a minimum of 6 months for any content patch, even if the game's scope was small like ours. Writing, design, production, then voice acting and localization, and beta testing, it was just constant work (I enjoyed it though).

ProffyJ2026-01-03 12:22

*stares at Dehya's kit and relegation to standard banner*

Alpha06Omega092026-01-03 12:34

Do not see how this is relevant

erosugiru2026-01-03 13:01

Staying on topic is foreign concept to you

Beta_Codex2026-01-03 12:31

I find this so hard to believe

Orio_n2026-01-03 12:36

Do people genuinely think they only start working on the next patch one patch ahead?

Edit: genuinely didnt know this wasn't common knowledge. Im used to concurrent long term planning and batched release cycles as a software dev so I guess its nice that genshin is transparent here

jelek1122026-01-03 12:47

People believing they instantly made nod krai in response to "natlan flop"

So Yes they do

luxyuz2026-01-03 14:35

Natlan flop? How did Natlan flop? Had some of the most amazing characters with good travel mechanics. I use Chasca 100% of the time.

X_Sacred_X2026-01-03 14:47

Because people online don’t use their brains before they speak, they call it a flop because they don’t personally enjoy it

LaplaceZ2026-01-03 15:03

Not a flop and I do not believe Nod Krai was a response or anything, but I do think that Natlan was weaker as a follow up to Fontaine. Story wise.

VaioletteWestover2026-01-03 19:33

It's funny because Natlan added at least 80-140 million players given Genshin was getting on average 2-4 million downloads on Android alone throughout Natlan. And we know cn and global ios and non Android numbers almost double global Android figures and that's not counting pc and PlayStation download figures.

I think people believe Natlan is flop due to the reported sales figures on the global Android sensor tower rankings. However, this is due to a major change near the end of Fontaine where mobile top ups got a 27% price hike to account for the platform fees as Genshin encouraged people to top up on their own platforms, which led to an immediate 50-70% drop in revenue on sensor tower as people migrated to mihoyo's own platforms to pay which do not show up in any sales rankings.

ZoomBoingDing2026-01-03 13:03

I assumed things like story and concept art was done way in advance, but it seemed like character mechanics, events, and UI/optimizations were only completed about a patch before release. Music, area design, and cutscenes would be done before those, but I didn't expect a year and a half! We do know from the VA shenanigans that voice work is several months out.

narium2026-01-03 13:18

Tbh if you play ZZZ it does feel like it sometimes.

LazyDevil692026-01-03 13:41

People dont realise how good they have it. Playing Hoyo games and getting a new massive patch every 6 weeks or so. Its crazy amount of work. Nearly all other games on the market dont get the same cadence of updates, and amount of content constantly.

BuildingQuirky23582026-01-03 12:42

no way it takes them half a year to create a any.7 version with 3 events wtf

EmperSo2026-01-03 12:43

So, they've started to make patches 23.5 years ago? 47*182.5 = 23.5. And also, Nod Krai was nowhere near last minute decision, since they began it's priduction 2 years ago.

Lucine_machine2026-01-03 12:56

Development began in 2017 from what I could find. If it takes 6 months to a year to make a patch now, I imagine the Mondstadt and Liyue patches were a bit less time consuming, maybe only a few months.

ankitjad2026-01-03 12:46

And they say Nodkrai is s filler tch tch

NSLEONHART2026-01-03 12:50

Makes sense, a single patch can be equated into making an entire anime movie with so much more steps

Story Writers have to make a coherent story that aligns with the current available lore or they can provide lore thamselves

In which case they have to consult to the lore-writers whos entire job is to make the world alive

Then a storyboard on how a quest will go

Then someone has to make the wall of text, in multiple languages, or at least have a full localization team (gabe and kai i miss you)

And within the localization team has the studios they hire to have voiceovers, and contact the voice actors/their managers and book an appointment which will take months to stitch it all together

Then the animators which hopefully dont have to tell anyone how conplicated that is

Then the gameplay aspect which many live programs have said to be even nore complicated from events, character design, combat aspects

And all of that would have to be pitched and approved by Da Wei to even be sent out or else they ho back to square 1

ChenMei272026-01-03 14:16

Honestly, this put so much perspective on how much work goes into each patch. Not to mention there are still many things that isn't listed here like the music. Makes me appreciate Genshin more.

NSLEONHART2026-01-03 14:30

Oh god that too! Especially when they work on a new region which you need a full commitee just to research on that culture and consults from that nation’s musician specialists. And with how isolated russia is now, idk how will hoyo-mix get a good set of people in making szeshnayan music

But robert zygler (genshin’s hired composer/maestro for live sumphonies) did confirm even back during luna 1 live program that hes akready working on sseshnaya’s music

blastcat42026-01-03 20:12

You haven't even mentioned the marketing work that needs to be done with each patch. It is substantial. Plus the business side can't be ignored. I know people look down on the marketing and business managers, but no studio can operate without them.

MenmaOnyx2026-01-03 12:51

The way this post proves people have 0 idea what goes on behind the scenes, and how game development works.

herminihildo2026-01-03 15:02

This could also apply to product development too with multiple teams involved.

kifune892026-01-03 12:52

Their already working in Khaeriah I guess.

AlterMagna2026-01-03 12:52

If this dev cycle is anything like HSR then they must be in an ultra compressed crunch to try and rewrite everything

horiami2026-01-03 12:54

I mean we knew they started working on the inazuma 2.1 patch a few months after the game came out

melonsapphire2026-01-03 12:59

important to note that venti’s JP VA (murase) said he started recording for voicelines at 2018, 2 years before genshin release. Some genshin jp vas that had become guests in genshin radio shows & podcasts also said they did their first recording 1 year-1.5years before their character got released.

Another fun fact, the orchestra team for each nation shared that they prepared music scores at least 1 year before the release of said nation (refer to genshin orchestra behind the scenes). So yeah, we can assume snezhnaya music is near completed by now, only rehearsals left.

Entire-Magazine-42832026-01-03 13:38

The JP radio show and now the podcast are often so informative and eye-opening! They're superfun as well! xd

gako_huyako162026-01-03 22:23

Same, especially when they let the seiyuus play their respective character

elysieee2026-01-03 16:10

Uchida Maaya also stated in one of her shows that she couldn't remember very well how she did Fischl and said it was a long time ago. That clip was posted on December 2020... Genshin was released on September 2020.

ieatrawbutter12026-01-03 22:33

yep, and i'm also pretty sure thoma's en va said that he recorded the inazuma lines around the time genshin released

XxTheLeoxX2026-01-03 13:03

Version as in whole of 5.x or 6.x or individual patches? I think its the former but wanna confirm

radish_overlord2026-01-03 13:17

so this means main Snezhnaya patch will be about a year or so from now given that the dev interview in the trailer featured one of their project managers asking the art team about the character art design for snezhnaya 🤔🧐

HuTaosTwinTails2026-01-03 13:19

Nah. But all the doom posters and conspiracy theories told me that they had to retcon everything last minute, no krai wasnt a thing until 5.7! /s

MeowieSugie2026-01-03 13:20

I wonder if they laugh at arguments in social media about Nod Krai being last minute patch like: "Ahh these kids..."

Azelvan2026-01-03 13:35

And some people still believe that they created Nod Krai because "Natlan is flopping"

Fit-Host-61452026-01-03 13:39

The sheer scale of their production pipeline must be a logistical nightmare, but the consistent quality and lack of major bugs really proves they've mastered it.

Gintoki_KotAro2026-01-03 14:22

And they have multiple big projects with different teams that probably have the same cycle of development. Hoyo is a leader in live services games industry.

Tempest3212026-01-03 15:36

Yep. That's one thing you have to give credit to Hoyo. Honestly, quite amazing that you don't see major bugs most of the time in the game given the 6-week patch cycle unless you actively search for it. They really nailed their pipeline.

FieryPlume2026-01-04 00:11

Yeah I never encountered anything game-breaking, maybe some character bugs in their kit or animation but even with a potato PC Genshin ran pretty reliably.

EvilGodShura2026-01-03 13:39

They just keep on getting better at it. Even when they try new things they go all in and try push higher even when they aren't sure of its popularity.

Like they are pushing Miliastra so hard im sure it will win people over eventually. Its just a matter of time until they add so many free outfits that people give in.

TunderBlood2026-01-03 13:43

And people will still think they can just pump out whatever everyone wants immediately

GintokisRightShoe2026-01-03 14:09

Actually crazy wtf

Toilethoughts2026-01-03 14:10

Having any amount of art/design background, you will know the insane amount of time and work it takes to get anything done.

Just the "theory" side, research, concept art, animation storyboarding, lore, mock-ups, these can already eat up months to years of time. These have to be finalised first before any actual work gets done, because you really don't wanna tell your animator to redo an animation he spent months doing.

Gray_Tower2026-01-03 16:20

This comment section is making me lose braincells holy shit

Captain_Jackson2026-01-03 17:43

Tell you what, Genshin has had one of the smoothest development road maps i've ever seen executed by a dev team. Aside from stuff out of their control it's been a consistant 6 week cycle for 5 years straight. Impressive as fuck.