miHoYo co-founder Cai Haoyu steps down as chairman… Liu Wei steps up | Pocket Gamer.biz
Genshin Impact creator miHoYo has seen a new chairman rise up after Cai Haoyu stepped down from the role despite remaining the company’s largest shareholder.
The role of chairman is now being filled by Liu Wei, who co-founded the company with Haoyu.
Times are changing
Now, miHoYo’s chairman and legal representative, Wei will manage company affairs while Haoyu focuses on researching technologies and development activities, South China Morning Post reported. This likely includes research into artificial intelligence, considering the recent scientific report miHoYo co-authored.
Haoyu handed the role over to his fellow co-founder, with whom he graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. They established the company together with Luo Yuhao in 2011, since which time Haoyu had held the positions of chairman and chief executive. Currently, it remains unclear as to who holds the latter position.
Haoyu is still the company’s largest shareholder, with a 41% stake. Meanwhile, Wei and Yuhao own 22.6% and 21.4% respectively.
Coinciding with this change, registered capital has been cut from ¥334 million ($45.6 million) to ¥317 million ($43.4 million) without a known reason why.
Success for miHoYo
It was only last month that miHoYo once again demonstrated its mobile dominance with the reveal that its catalogue of games has netted a mighty $8 billion in user spending. Flagship Genshin Impact has led this charge of course, representing 73% of the total, but the recently released Honkai: Star Rail has been seeing major success too.
After reaching 20 million installs on launch day, Honkai: Star Rail has now raced past $500 million in worldwide sales, rightfully earning miHoYo an undisputed place on our Top 50 Game Makers list.
Even NetEase is looking for maximum ‘Impact’ with its new RPG Project Mugen, a love letter to urban fantasies. Both Chinese companies, NetEase and miHoYo are currently outcompeted only by Tencent within the country, with miHoYo the newest rising star of the bunch.
Only time will tell how the change in chairman will impact miHoYo’s position in the market.
