During today’s Mihoyo event, it was announced that Genshin Impact is finally getting cross-save functionality. For most games, I don’t really care about cross-progression. I’m not usually one to repurchase games on multiple platforms - unless that game is Hades, in which case, give it to me on everything - but Genshin Impact is different. I couldn’t give a rat’s arse about cross-play - I play Genshin as a single-player experience in short, intense bursts anyway - but cross-save is a bona fide game-changer.
Back when Genshin Impact originally launched, I must have pumped around 100 hours into it during the first month alone. Loads of people compared it to Breath of the Wild on account of its ‘Ghibli but gamey’ aesthetic, stamina-based ‘you can climb anything!’ traversal, and use of ‘this is in every RPG now, hard luck’ glider. Sorry about the parentheses, I just hate these comparisons with every fiber of my being. Games have copied each other forever, which is why games are good, actually. It’s one great big learning curve and once a developer steps out to do something different it’s obvious and influential and brilliant as a result of that. Plus I had a much better time with Genshin than Breath of the Wild anyway, so jog on, thanks.
Although I’ve got a decent PC, I’m a console player at heart. I don’t like lugging my tower down to plug it into the telly, and even if I’m using a controller it just feels… different, or something. It’s a completely psychosomatic phenomenon, mind - I could adjust the settings on my PC across notifications, windowing, and just about everything else so that it mirrored my Xbox Series X almost perfectly. But I know it’s my PC, and I work on my PC, so if I’m able to play a game on a different platform, that’s usually what I’m going to opt for.
Cue cross-progression in Genshin Impact. When I started playing Genshin, I was working off a laptop. I wasn’t huddled up at a monitor in my room, sitting on a gamer chair in what feels like 500-degree heat. I was chilling in my kitchen with my dog, regularly getting up to stretch my legs, and drinking green tea by the gallon. Then my laptop shat itself and I was forced to work at my PC, which is, admittedly, much more efficient, but also let’s remember the issue of me now working from the inside of a volcano.
Since that point, I haven’t been able to play Genshin Impact on PC. I finish work and the first thing that comes to mind is just, “I need to get out of here stat.” I played some Alpha Protocol a couple of weeks back, and I’ve jumped into a Valheim lobby once or twice, but aside from that the last few months have been all Xbox, all the time. Now, imagine if Mihoyo said, “Good news, Genshin is coming to Xbox next week,” and then went, “Oh, also, and your save carries over.” We’re back in business.
Unfortunately, there’s been no news on the Xbox front, but at least we’re finally going to see a proper implementation of cross-save. For what it’s worth, I know it’s on PS5, but I can’t get one of those because scalpers are wankers. I could play it on PS4, technically speaking, but my base PS4 sounds like a Boeing 747 that’s just sucked a flock of albatrosses into its left engine, so… no thanks.
Admittedly, though, I’m tempted to play on PS4 now, even if it does whip up a small duststorm in my living room. In an ideal world, Genshin would come to Xbox Series X or Nintendo Switch so I could play it on one of those instead, but I suppose I’ll take my overly loud, about-to-take-flight-any-second machine from the Stone Age. That’s just a testament to how good cross-progression is - I’ve only used my PS4 for Persona 5 Strikers and Nier Replicant in the last seven months, both of which I played, loved, and then ditched forever on account of noise pollution, dust pollution, and ‘oh my god please stop with the headaches’ pollution. If your base PS4 still works well, power to you. Mine is full of Golden Retriever hair and has had a cumulative 17 litres of whiskey spilled on it since 2013, so it’s a bit, er… worse for wear. Still perfect for Genshin though, eh?
Frankly, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Mihoyo surely recognizes how valuable it is to allow players to switch between platforms while still leveling the same character - otherwise why would it implement this at all? What’s weird is that cross-progression between PC and mobile was already a thing, so why did it take so long to throw other platforms into the mix? Ah, who cares - at least it’s here now.
Given the kind of game Genshin Impact is, cross-save is a perfect means of monopolizing all of the hardware in a house in order to claim even more playtime from consumers. ‘Genshin cross-progression’ is basically synonymous with ‘Genshin Impact is the only game now.’ Sure, there are plenty of excellent live-service titles on the market already, but Genshin receives quality updates on such a ridiculously regular basis that it’s just like, wow… Guess I better put all of my free time into this one game! Cross-progression is the smartest possible way Mihoyo could have improved its already outlandish profits on this game. Between my PS4 and phone, I’m probably going to end up spending entire days playing this game once Inazuma drops. Oh no…
I mean, I’m exaggerating, obviously. But only a little bit. Now that I’m finally able to bring my AR 35 character to a machine I’m not typing this article on, with all of my characters, weapons, and artifacts intact, there’s going to be no escaping Teyvat for me. Genshin getting cross-save just makes a great game even more excellent.
