A furious fan has destroyed his PlayStation 4 in protest of Sony's promotion of Genshin Impact at Chinese gaming expo ChinaJoy. The game was first revealed for PC and smartphones at E3, but it was only recently announced that Genshin Impact is coming to PS4 as well.
Genshin Impact and its developer MiHoYo have been under siege by angry commentators ever since the game was first shown. Genshin Impact is overtly inspired by Nintendo's masterpiece The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which launched on Switch and Wii U only two years ago. Many fans have remarked that the two games are nearly identical from a mechanical and graphical standpoint, and are calling Genshin Impact a "Chinese knockoff," among other things. The controversy surrounding the game has only intensified lately, but perhaps the worst of it happened during ChinaJoy this past week.
Sony was promoting the PS4 version of Genshin Impact during its ChinaJoy press conference in Shanghai on Thursday. According to Daniel Ahmad on Twitter, this didn't sit well with one particular fan. To show his disdain for Genshin Impact and Sony's promotion of the game, the attendee pulled a PS4 Pro out of his backpack and smashed it on the ground in front of a group of onlookers. The photos show a combination of reactions from the crowd, including surprise, offense and amusement. The PS4-destroying attendee was apparently stopped by security after the deed was done.
Ahmad goes on to say that a large part of the negative response to Genshin Impact is coming from China, where a significant number of online commenters are upset about the game and claiming that it is "copying too much." He shows more photos from the ChinaJoy show floor outside of Sony's promo setup for Genshin Impact, where Nintendo fans are seen holding up their Switches and copies of Breath of the Wild while giving Sony the middle finger. Other Twitter users state that Sony made a post about Genshin Impact on Chinese social media platform Weibo, which has been met with over 500 comments including personal attacks and death threats directed at MiHoYo and Sony.
Much like the recent controversy regarding Wolfenstein: Youngblood's microtransactions, this kind of reaction to Genshin Impact is flatly ridiculous. There's no denying the blatant parallels between it and Breath of the Wild, but considering how incredible BotW was, Genshin Impact could be a great game if it captures even a little of that magic. Some have suggested that this display of rage towards Sony and the game itself was a publicity stunt, intended to be seen at a high-profile event like ChinaJoy. Either way, it certainly doesn't look like this will be hurting Sony's business or Genshin Impact's sales.
Source: Daniel Ahmad/Twitter