Wuthering Waves release date officially set for May 2024

Kuro Games’ Genshin Impact contender is coming soon

Marco Wutz | Mar 29, 2024

Kuro Games

Developer Kuro Games has officially announced the release date for Wuthering Waves, its new anime open-world RPG – it will be available on PC, iOS, and Android on May 22, 2024. It’ll be a free-to-play game that contains gacha elements, allowing players to pull for more characters as well as other useful in-game assets.

Kuro revealed the launch date in its latest special program for Wuthering Waves, which you can watch in full on YouTube. In addition to this big announcement, the developer went over feedback gathered from the game’s latest closed beta test earlier this year, discussing the lessons learned and changes to be implemented ahead of the release date.

These adjustments will address some of the largest concerns testers had about the version they got to play, such as the Echoes system – one of the ways to acquire more power for characters – and issues with the localization. Though many observers hoped that Kuro would give the game a bit more time in the oven, it looks like the studio is confident that Wuthering Waves will be able to stand up to expectations in its current state.

These expectations are quite high – while anyone calling it a “Genshin Impact killer” is doing so simply to generate attention, Wuthering Waves will be one of the first gacha games inspired by the success of HoYoverse’s mega hit and wants to at least have a slice of the pie.

Genshin Impact showed the world what a high-budget gacha game with triple-A production value could achieve – and Kuro Games is not the only studio chasing that dragon, as the recent reveal of Azur Promilia once again showed. Positioning itself as a strong contender ahead of the competition will be important. For that to work, first impressions are crucial.

Of course, Wuthering Waves isn’t a blind copy of Genshin Impact. Though the projects clearly share similarities, Kuro Games wants to differentiate its game with more in-depth combat that’s more mechanically demanding – elements like dodge counters and QTE sections are key pillars of that strategy. Will that work out? We won’t have to wait for too long anymore to find out.

Published Mar 29, 2024

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg