Genshin Impact is coming to Xbox, according to an announcement during gamescom Opening Night Live today.
In a new trailer, we got another look at the upcoming new nation, Natlan, which is planned to arrive in the 5.0 update on August 28. The trailer showed off new characters such as the shark surfboarder Mualani, Kinich, and Kachina, as well as various locations in Natlan. It’s nothing we didn’t know about already, but it was nice to get a new perspective on the nation ahead of release.
But the big news is that Genshin Impact is finally coming to Xbox Series consoles on November 20. This is huge news – up until now, it’s only been available on PC and PlayStation, and while a Switch port was announced pre-launch, four years later it’s still nowhere to be found. As of 2022, the Switch version was “still in development” per a HoYoverse representative, but there’s been no real news since. At this point, it’s possible we’ll have to wait for the next Nintendo console.
For now, though, the Xbox release is big news on its own. We gave Genshin Impact a 9/10 in our review, calling it “an amazing open-world adventure that draws heavily on both its Breath of the Wild and anime inspirations to create something truly special.” Though the game has only gotten bigger and deeper since, fans are criticizing the character designs in the upcoming 5.0 update, saying that the Natlan region designs borrow inspiration from real-world cultures while whitewashing the characters themselves. HoYoverse has yet to respond.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.