Zenless Zone Zero looks to be headed for an early 2024 release

All the pieces are coming together

Marco Wutz | Dec 5, 2023

Zenless Zone Zero looks to be headed for an early 2024 release /

HoYoverse’s urban fantasy RPG Zenless Zone Zero looks to be headed for an early 2024 release date. The second closed beta test for the game is currently ongoing and while there are smaller bits and pieces that still require polishing, the entire experience looks pretty much ready to be put into the hands of players. Feedback from the Chinese community, which naturally is the most important one for the Shanghai-based developer, has been especially encouraging and positive, so we wouldn’t expect any massive changes from this point onwards.

That’s one of the reasons why the release date may not be that far off. Aside from the approval by Chinese gamers, Zenless Zone Zero has also been waved through by Chinese authorities – every game released in the country must get approved by the state first, and HoYoverse already got the green light for Zenless Zone Zero back in late October 2023. In case HoYoverse wanted to change the game up in a big way, it would likely have to go through that approval process again.

Zenless Zone Zero keyart of characters in and on a car. — Zenless Zone Zero looks about ready for release / HoYoverse

Furthermore, a page for the game on the Epic Games Store has appeared now with a “coming soon” release date, adding another piece for us to fit into the puzzle.

Let’s look back at the process for HoYoverse’s latest release, Honkai: Star Rail. It received the stamp of approval from the authorities in January 2023, after which a final closed beta was run. The PC, iOS, and Android release then followed on April 26, 2023, roughly four months after it was waved through by the state. The appearance of the sci-fi title’s EGS page lines up as well.

Putting the pieces together, our educated guess would be that Zenless Zone Zero will release between February and April 2024.

With The Game Awards 2023 coming up and HoYoverse traditionally being part of the show with at least one trailer, we may even be lucky enough to get a release date announcement.

We’ll have an in-depth preview based on the current closed beta for you in the near future as well.

Zenless Zone Zero is set to come out for PC, iOS, Android, and as-yet unspecified consoles.

Published Dec 5, 2023

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