When Geoff Keighley invites to one of his game shows, he always brings a wide range of announcements from Korea and China. This was also the case at the ONL of the gamescom 2026. Following that, a discussion about the “look and feel” of these games erupted.
Nodus Fall and Petit Planet by HoYoverse. The anime-GTA Ananta. The wild genre mix Sea of Remnants. Silver Palace: House of Greed. Aion 2, of course. Showa American Story. Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Cinder City by NCSoft. Zoopunk. Like or Die. Final Fantasy VII Revelation. Aniimo. Nezha Genigods. Project Zeta and Tarae by Krafton. Monster Hunter Outlanders. Roco Kingdom. The Defiant. Once Human.
Geoff Keighley had brought a particularly well-filled cornucopia of game announcements from the Asian region to the ONL of gamescom 2026. This was, of course, also noted in the comment section of the streams and on social media. Players repeatedly pointed out that all the games from China and Korea looked alike, for example, here on X.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, who specializes in the video game market in Asia, vehemently contradicts this criticism on X. He comments on the claim that everything is homogeneous as follows:
People say this but that’s only because the large showcases tend to show AAA budget games that are always similar to each other. HoYoverse’s new game is nothing like it’s old titles for example.
There are plenty of smaller (and larger) games from CN/KR developers that are extremely unique, from games like Road to Empress, to Eastward, The Scrolls of Taiwu, Dyson Sphere Program, Warm Snow, My Time at Sandrock, Party Animals, Sultan’s Game, Escape from Duckov, AI Limit, TBH Task Bar Hero, Sephiria, Guardian Tales, Dave the Diver etc.
Not to mention the rich history of MMOs both countries have.
MyMMO editor Karsten Scholz reflects on this discussion, the criticism from some players, and Ahmad’s argument and finds himself caught in the middle.
One of the many new trailers from the ONL of gamescom 2026 from Asia:
A Region with History
I can definitely understand every player who watches the trailers of Asian games and finds it hard to distinguish them due to their visual style or gameplay.
Games are often shaped by their cultural and societal roots and their history. And by games that have been very successful in the past.
There are, for example, reasons why Asian games have long relied on gender lock in character creation. Or why many online games in Asia have used a Free2Play model from the beginning – this relates to factors such as internet cafes or the collapse of various Asian markets (such as in China and Taiwan) for traditional Buy2Play games due to software piracy.
There is even an explanation for the acceptance of Pay2Win there: Due to long working and school hours and the hourly billing in internet cafes, many Asian players had little time to play but a bit more money to spend. Thus, purchasing progress or equipment in the item shop became an established compensation for the lack of playtime.
The visual style of many Asian games has been heavily influenced for many years by the popularity of anime and mangas from Japan, which have captivated countless fans across borders and have created comparable animation styles in films, series, and games. And due to the enormous success of FromSoftware… suddenly everyone wants to be as dark fantasy as Dark Souls or Elden Ring.
All these factors together ultimately mean that Asian games often bring certain peculiarities in visual style, gameplay, and monetization. Peculiarities that can easily put off Western players.
FromSoftware has shaped game development worldwide for years:
Partially Justified Criticism, but the Problem is Global
However, when we look at the history of Western games, we quickly realize that it is no different here. The games from Europe and the USA are also heavily influenced by comparable factors. Because capitalism is quite pronounced here, the decision-makers of Western corporations often strive primarily for what has been particularly successful recently.
When World of Warcraft exploded in popularity here, comparable online role-playing games from the West sprang up like mushrooms after that. It was similar after the first successful MOBAs, battle royale shooters, extraction shooters, and so on.
In the West, it is also often about franchises and the expansion of successful game series. A year without a new FIFA or EA Sports FC or Call of Duty? Unthinkable! This philosophy is also reflected in other areas such as Western cinema, where rarely new IPs and ideas are found, but rather more sequels and known franchises.
In short: The criticism of homogenization can easily be projected onto the Western gaming landscape as well.
At least if you look at the AAA sector. Because here it often holds true: The larger the budget, the lower the willingness to take risks, the less innovation there is in visuals and game design, and the more uniform the games feel in the end. This is true globally for AAA games across all markets and countries.
Daniel Ahmad rightly points out that not only in the West, many special, innovative often rather small (indie) games are created every year, but also in Asia. For some of the mentioned titles like Dave the Diver or Escape from Duckov, I wasn’t even aware that they came from Asia.
However, his reference to Asian MMOs backfires. Because there we often deal with AAA budgets. And with the criticism from the Western MMO community that many Asian genre representatives can hardly be distinguished from one another because of their generic Unreal Engine 5 look. Or that these games often have to contend with overly aggressive monetization from the perspective of a Western player.
Crimson Desert is so absurdly comprehensive and vast… such a game can only come from Asia these days.
More Diversity and Fun through Games from Asia
In the whole discussion, I find the mention that very exciting games have been emerging in Korea and China for some time, games that most Western studios probably wouldn’t dare to tackle in the current, very difficult phase. I think of large-scale productions like Where Winds Meet or Crimson Desert, which are so unique that they have been able to celebrate great successes in the West despite their flaws.
I, for one, am very much looking forward to Nodus Fall, which looks so wonderfully atypical for HoYoverse. But also to Honor of Kings: World, which I already had a lot of fun with in the first test. To Phantom Blade Zero. To the colorful DokeV. To the sequel of the already very good Black Myth: Wukong.
And do you notice something? Most of these games are neither sequels nor are based on a globally known brand. While this also happens in Asia, see NCSoft’s expansion of franchises like Aion, Lineage, or Guild Wars, there are many fresh IPs accompanying them.
And when games prove to be too generic and interchangeable – no matter whether they come from the West, East, North, or South – then let’s punish them equally: no purchase, no playtime. Market success is ultimately often the biggest factor that determines the games we will get in the future, and that stands true everywhere in the world.
What do you think? Can you follow my argument, or do you have a different opinion on the topic? Feel free to let me know in the comments! More about the peculiarities that many online role-playing games from Asia unfortunately often bring to the West can be found here: 5 mistakes that MMORPGs from Asia must avoid to succeed in the West
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