Genshin Impact may have an even bigger impact on everyone’s lives than we already know.
miHoYo’s free-to-play action RPG is one of the biggest games in the world. As of September 2022, it was reported to have made $ 3.6 billion, and that amount is surely growing. We know that miHoYo invested some of that money in other games, such as the turn based RPG Honkai: Star Rail, and the upcoming urban fantasy roguelike Zenless Zone Zero. But now, reports have emerged that the company is investing in something beyond even most gamers’ wildest dreams.
As reported by Windows Central, the game company entered a venture with energy company Energy Singularity in Shanghai, to build and operate its own tokamak fusion reactor. The company had apparently invested $ 65 million into the project.
So, you can read more about tokamak here, but the short explanation is this technology is trying to use magnets to not only generate, but confine energy, created from thermonuclear fusion. Alternately, a cool way to explain it, is this technology is trying to make artificial suns, and control the energy you generate from that, using magnets.
The Windows Central report refers to tokamak as a purported holy grail, but that can be disputed. In a general sense, it’s the idea of nuclear fusion, which could theoretically be a clean energy source if we figure out how to make more of it than it costs to make it, that is that holy grail. But even in that sense, there are scientists who dispute that nuclear fusion in general is the energy solution for our future.
Multiple countries and entities are also working on tokamak research, and there are also other nuclear fusion technologies in the works. Bill Gates has famously invested in Terrapower, a nuclear energy company working on ways to reuse depleted uranium from old stockpiles, and stored in molten salt reactors, to make nuclear power in a way that is safe and sustainable.
But getting back to miHoYo, it’s clear why the company would want to invest in research on nuclear energy. The move to better energy sources would help all humanity, and there’s also a direct benefit to the video game industry. What’s really surprising here is why there are not more game companies who are also investing in this. For what it’s worth, as multinationals, both Sony and Microsoft do have their own renewable energy projects.
We aren’t in a position to judge on which of these technologies are more likely to succeed, of course. The reason everyone is trying different things is there’s a real race to get to that holy grail goal of renewable energy. But it’s certainly fun to think of your favorite game companies being part of that race. The next time you do your Genshin Impact pulls, you can certainly say that in some small way, you’re helping us get there.
