1.Introduction

With the acceleration of globalization, the dissemination of cultural products in the international market has become more and more important. As a cultural product with a wide audience and far-reaching influence, the international communication strategy of video games has attracted much attention. The international importance of games is due to globalization and digitalization, enabling global play and communication. Game cultures retain both national and global qualities [1]. In this context, one of the main challenges faced by game developers is how to effectively cross-cultural and market differences and attract players from different regions around the world.

PV is the shortened form of “Promotion Video”, a common Japanese term for music video. Initially, PV mainly referred to a kind of synchronized promotional video produced at the time of music release, and was gradually applied to the field of gaming. Game PV, as an important tool before the release of a game's new content, is a short but powerful audiovisual content designed to quickly capture the attention of potential players.

Genshin Impact, an open-world role-playing game developed by Chinese game company miHoYo, has gained great success worldwide since its release in 2020. This is not only due to its high-quality game content, but also largely due to its well-planned PV strategy. By skillfully blending global and local cultural elements, the PVs of Genshin Impact including Version Trailer, Character Teaser, Character Demo, Collected Miscellany and Extended Play etc., have successfully attracted players from different cultural backgrounds.

This paper mainly explores how Genshin impact overcomes cultural and market differences to achieve cross-cultural dissemination through creating different kinds of game PVs in the aspects of storytelling, visual aesthetics, and localized marketing approaches, revealing how these strategies contributed to the game’s global acceptance. Through an in-depth analysis, this paper aims to provide valuable insights for other game developers to help them better promote their products in the international market through launching PVs.

2.Storytelling Skills in the Game PVs of Genshin Impact

2.1.Showcase of Multicultural Elements

Genshin Impact’s game worldview is a fictional fantasy world that incorporates real-world cultures, and its construction draws on both Eastern and western cultures, with each region having a unique cultural background that makes the entire world both familiar and novel. One key attribute often valued in a video game trailer is its representativeness. This characteristic pertains to how accurately the trailer conveys the gaming experience by utilizing semiotic audiovisual elements [2]. When creating version trailers for the different regions in the game, Genshin Impact utilized non-verbal cultural symbols to fully express the cultural background of the region. These are first visual presentations that include the architectural styles and natural landscapes within the game. For example, in the PV of the Mondstadt region, which is inspired by the medieval western European culture, the audience can see medieval European-style castles, windmills, and taverns, which are elements reminiscent of Europe's sense of romance and history. This representation not only provides potential players with a realistic preview of the game, but also promotes cross-cultural communication by presenting the core experience and themes of the game to players around the world.

Also, music and sound effects also play an important role in the game PVs of Genshin Impact. Vast domains of meaning are governed by non-verbal languages, including mathematics and symbolic language [3]. The background music of version trailers for each area uses traditional instruments and melodies of a specific culture to enhance the cultural atmosphere. Modern music and art, for example, contain little to no verbal elements. Despite being forms of language, they do not adhere to conventional linguistic interpretations [3]. Through non-verbal languages, including visual art and music, the game PVs of Genshin Impact conveys rich cultural and emotional content. These non-verbal symbols transcend traditional language barriers, allowing players from different cultural backgrounds to understand and empathize with the game's themes and narrative. The background music of the version trailer for Liyue region inspired by the culture of ancient China incorporates traditional Chinese instruments such as the guzheng and the erhu, with melodic and rhythmic melodies that make players feel as if they are in an ancient oriental wonderland. These elements illustrate how Genshin Impact’s game PV utilizes non-verbal communication to effectively achieve cross-cultural communication. By using universal forms of expression, the game PV ensures that cultural and emotional messages are accessible to users across the globe, regardless of their linguistic background.

2.2.Diverse Character Development

Genshin Impact succeeded in portraying three-dimensional characters through the creation of several well-designed PVs for each character. These character PVs include a character teaser that tells the character’s personal story, a character demonstration that focuses on the character’s combat skill, a collected miscellany that introduces the character’s identity in the game world in the form of a voiceover narration, and an extended play that focuses on music related to the character. Focus and frame semantics suggest that perspective determines the way discourse is described and narrated. When describing an event, the choice of perspective—whether from the viewpoint of a participant, an observer, or a third party—can lead to different linguistic expressions and semantic interpretations. The selection of perspective affects how information is conveyed and understood [4]. Through a muti-faceted storytelling approach, the character PVs of Genshin Impact tell the story of the character’s upbringing, personal motivations, and emotional entanglements. Well-developed characters possess enough realism to make them as unpredictable as actual individuals [5]. Through the introduction of the character’s background and the unfolding of the plot, audiences are able to understand the complexity of each character. This detailed presentation not only gives players a deeper understanding of the inner world of the characters, but also stimulates their curiosity about the characters, which in turn generates interest and motivation to explore the game world. In this way, audiences are not only able to understand the outward appearance of the character, but also deeply feel the emotional depth and psychological changes of the character. This all-encompassing character presentation triggers audiences’ emotional resonance with characters, and regardless of their cultural backgrounds, they can find common ground and identification with these characters. This emotional resonance and character complexity motivate players to be more engaged in the game and to have a sustained interest in the character's story and development.

2.3.Universal Themes in a Multicultural Context

The game PVs of Genshin Impact not only showcases the rich multicultural elements of its world, but also skillfully highlights universal themes within those cultural contexts, thus successfully engaging audiences from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Each game area not only incorporates specific cultures from the real world, but is also imbued with a core theme that is easily accessible to global audiences that encompasses universal values and emotions. For example, the version trailer of Fontaine region inspired by European culture during the Industrial Revolution focuses on "justice", emphasizing the social ideals of fairness and righteousness. The blending of self-selection and setting choice also raises the chances that individuals within a given setting will be more similar to each other and less diverse. This greater similarity promotes more efficient interactions and enhances the likelihood of behavioral agreement and, occasionally, noticeable imitation among participants [6]. In the context of Genshin Impact's game PVs, this principle can be observed in how the PVs leverage universal themes and culturally diverse elements to appeal to a broad audience. By incorporating familiar cultural symbols and themes such as freedom, justice, eternity etc., the PVs create a more homogeneous interpretive environment where players from different backgrounds can easily connect with the content. This homogeneity not only enhances the efficiency of player interactions with the game but also increases the likelihood of emotional resonance and behavioral concordance, fostering a deeper engagement with the game's world. Even with the influence of the global economy and widespread cultural products, individuals continue to interpret what they encounter based on their local beliefs, values, and norms [7]. This underscores the importance of cultural sensitivity and localization in global media products. Most of the PVs of Genshin Impact profoundly demonstrate universal themes such as courage, adventure, friendship, exploration, and self-discovery. These themes not only have broad cross-cultural resonance, but also touch the emotional depths of audiences from different cultural backgrounds.

3.The Communication Strategy of Genshin Impact Game PVs Reaching Global Audiences

3.1.Language Localization

The game PVs of Genshin Impact are commonly released with voice acting in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean languages and subtitles in multiple languages. Multi-language dubbing enhances the intimacy and immersion of the game. Audiences from different language backgrounds are able to hear the voice of their native language, making the characters more vivid and realistic and enhancing the immersion of the game experience. Four languages cover the major markets worldwide of Genshin Impact, with the Japanese and Korean dubs appealing to Japanese and Korean players, and the English dub covering a wide range of international markets. Multi-language subtitles further enhance the accessibility of Genshin Impact’s game PVs, and even if audiences hear the dub in a foreign language, the subtitles can help them better understand the dialogue and plot development. The foreign spoken audio track is included to enhance the 'exoticism' of the viewing experience [8]. Since the cultural backgrounds of the different regions in Genshin impact’s worldview are inspired by different cultures in the real world, this is reflected in its game PVs. For example, for the version trailers for the Fontaine region inspired by European culture during the Industrial revolution, English dubbed PVs are actually better at creating the appropriate cultural atmosphere for the audiences than dubbed voices in other languages. In addition, for non-native speakers, hearing a foreign language dubbed not only adds to the mystery and novelty of the game, but also enhances its cultural diversity. This exotic soundtrack increases the attractiveness of the game and makes audiences feel the unique charm of different cultures.

3.2.Media Communication Matrix

The media communication matrix of Genshin Impact’s game PVs is one of the key factors for its successful cross-cultural communication. First, through official channels, such as the official websites, Genshin Impact was able to provide authoritative information and exclusive content directly to loyal players, which not only enhanced player’s stickiness, but also boosted their trust in the game. The use of social networks was also crucial in the marketing strategy of the game Genshin Impact. As Wesley stated that a crucial element in launching a game is leveraging social networks to build product awareness [9]. Official social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Weibo and Wechat, play an important role. The advantage of social networks lies in their broad user base and instantaneous distribution capabilities, which enable the game to spread rapidly across the globe. By regularly releasing game version trailers, character introductions, and other content through these platforms, Genshin Impact not only maintained the attention of existing players, but also attracted the interest of a large number of potential players. In addition, interactive features on these platforms enable game developers to communicate with players in real time and obtain feedback, further enhancing player engagement and loyalty. On Platform X, Genshin Impact has even created multiple official accounts for different regions to ensure that information is accurately delivered to audiences around the world, and encourages audiences to share and spread the PVs through a lottery mechanism. Video content achieves higher conversion rates compared to other types of content. Social media marketing utilizes high-quality promotional videos to effectively promote games [10]. Genshin Impact also utilized video platforms such as YouTube and Bilibili for its game PV promotion, further enhancing its global reach. The strong video distribution advantages of these platforms enabled the game to quickly reach a global audience and attract number of new players. Thus, through its highly effective video content strategy, Genshin Impact not only enhanced the brand's social influence, but also realized extensive cross-cultural communication.

4.The Dissemination Effectiveness

Genshin Impact released its first version trailer on June 8, 2019, and as of August 5, 2024, over 400 PVs in total have been released, including 77 version PVs, 214 character PVs, 54 event PVs, 17 animated shorts and 14 music videos. As of August 5, 2024, on the video platform for the Chinese market Bilibili, the official account of Genshin Impact has a total of 19.82 million followers, with a total video play count of 1.87 billion and a total of 210 million likes [11]; on the video platform for the global market Youtube, the official account of Genshin Impact has a total of 7.45 million subscribers, with a total video play count of over 1.2 billion [12].

5.Current issues and Optimization Suggestions

5.1.Market Differentiation Communication Issue

The issue of market-differentiated communication is a key challenge, with market needs and player preferences varying significantly from region to region. Hofstede pointed out that the collective mental programming is shared among some individuals, but not all; it is typical for members of a specific group or category, yet distinct from those in other groups or categories [13]. This means that players from different cultural backgrounds and groups have different understandings and expectations of game content. As a result, uniform game PVs’ content may not effectively meet the specific needs and expectations of audiences in different location, affecting the market acceptance and promotion of the game. In order to solve this problem, it is recommended to conduct market research and collect player feedback on a regular basis to gain an in-depth understanding of the changes in market demand and player preferences in each region. By adjusting the content of PVs and promotion strategy based on these findings, the game can be more precisely targeted to audiences in different regions and achieve more effective marketing and player interaction.

5.2.Language Localization Issue

Though Genshin Impact provides dubbing in four languages and subtitles in multiple languages for its game PVs, the content in them may not be equally understood or accepted by viewers in different regions due to language and cultural differences. When the target culture has limited exposure to the source language, the subtitler typically has greater freedom, since viewers are more likely to rely entirely on the subtitles to comprehend the dialogue [8]. This requires that the language localization process be based on the cultural characteristics of the target language, so that the same message is conveyed to audiences from different language backgrounds while preserving the cultural characteristics of the original language. The multilingual dubbing and subtitling strategy in game PVs need to make careful cultural adjustments while preserving the original language and cultural characteristics. This not only conveys the same message to the target audience, but also allows them to feel the cultural charm of the original language. The cultural background and language habits of viewers in different regions are different, and subtitlers should combine local cultural characteristics when localizing, so that the subtitle content is more in line with the target audience’s cognitive and receptive styles.

6.Conclusion

The game PVs of Genshin Impact has demonstrated excellent strategies and practices in overcoming cultural and market differences and realizing cross-cultural communication. Through in-depth analysis of the storytelling, communication strategy and its effectiveness, it can be found that by utilizing non-verbal cultural symbols, such as visual elements and music, its game PVs successfully demonstrate the unique cultural essence of the multicultural background. In addition, the three-dimensional character design not only enhances the authenticity and attractiveness of the characters, but also promotes cross-cultural emotional resonance. Meanwhile, the universal themes highlighted in the game PVs of Genshin Impact such as courage, adventure, friendship, etc., have further brought players from different cultural backgrounds to identify with the common themes. Moreover, the success of Genshin Impact’s game PVs in terms of communication strategies also provides an important reference for other games in cross-cultural communication through the production of game PVs. Language localization enables the game PVs to effectively reach global audiences. Also, by comprehensively utilizing a variety of communication channels, its game PVs quickly covered the global market and increased the game's international recognition and influence. Although Genshin Impact’s game PVs have made remarkable achievements in cross-cultural communication, there are still some problems. The issue of market-differentiated communication needs to be further addressed, especially how to meet the specific needs and expectations of players more precisely in different markets. In addition, there may be problems with cultural adaptation in language localization processing, which may affect the acceptance of PV content in different cultural contexts.

Overall, the successful experience of the PV of the game Genshin Impact provides a valuable reference for the cross-cultural communication of other games. Through the comprehensive use of storytelling, language localization strategies and multi-platform communication tools, game developers can more effectively break through cultural and market differences to achieve successful communication on a global scale. These experiences and strategies not only enhance the global influence of Genshin Impact but also provide valuable experience for other games to promote in the international market through the production of game PVs.