Where Winds Meet launches to 2 million players

NetEase's new open-world RPG, Where Winds Meet, has had a massive launch, pulling in over 2 million players on its first day. The free-to-play title also peaked at over 193,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. However, given that the game is also available on PlayStation 5, the total player count is significantly higher.

This launch continues the trend of Chinese-developed, mythology-based games finding a major audience in the West, following the success of titles like last year's Black Myth: Wukong and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. On the first day, as per the developer,  the game peaked at over 170,000 players on Steam, but the number increased to 193,000 the day after, according to SteamDB.

On Steam, Where Winds Meet is holding a ‘Very Positive' rating from almost 15,000 reviews (at the time of writing). Players are widely praising the high production value of its open world, noting that it feels more like a premium product than a free-to-play game. The single-player campaign's story and deep, complex systems have also been highlighted as strengths, though some new players find the game's depth daunting at first.

However, one specific feature is proving highly divisive. Where Winds Meet uses AI-powered chatbots for some of its NPCs, a design choice some players are not a fan of. Although the game clearly identifies which NPCs are AI-driven, many players feel that this feature detracts from the game's realism and breaks immersion.

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KitGuru says: Have you already tried Where Winds Meet? How do you feel about the AI-powered NPCs?

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