Genshin Impact Dev Is Reportedly Making An Animal Crossing Competitor

thegamer.com:

Genshin Impact has always drawn comparisons to Breath of the Wild, launching two years later with incredibly similar visuals, mechanics, and even minigames. The big difference is that Genshin is a Gacha game available across myriad platforms, but it doesn't look like Mihoyo is done taking inspiration from Nintendo, as Hoyoverse leaker and Twitch streamer SipSipStefen has shown off screenshots from a new Animal Crossing-like life sim.

The collage of screenshots shows what is presumably a custom character exploring a small town, finding obelisks on a beach, decorating their home, and hanging out by a town board with animal-like characters depicted on post-it notes. If you've played Animal Crossing, the resemblance is uncanny.

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Lending credence to this claim is the fact that this isn't the first time the game has leaked. In May of this year, @Ubatcha1 tweeted, "So I [actually] heard hoyoverse are working on a casual simulation style game". They didn't know much more than that, asking followers to DM them if they had heard anything.

While it's believed that the character is custom due to the nature of life sims like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, there are no further details on the game at this time. All we know is that Mihoyo is developing its own take on Animal Crossing, with a strikingly similar visual style.

The game is still in development and was not shown publicly or announced officially, so everything we are seeing here is subject to change before reveal and eventual launch. And as it hasn't been announced, there's always the risk of cancellation--after all, Mihoyo both publicly revealed and cancelled an open-world shooter.

It's unclear