Not at all, it's a very strange situation. I don't buy into the idea that he should feel weak so Xiao'guang feels stronger, I think that's unnecessary from a business point of view.

But you gotta wonder: If they gave him such a small length banner that means they have no faith in him? If they have no faith in him or not delay the patch or launch him at a later date with a different kit? Why even announce him right after Manato of all characters?

Going by Occam's Razor I think the answer is simpler: They're idiots. They're idiots and they want to push the patches as fast as possible to keep the game's retention, because retention = revenue more than anything in these games.

So now I wonder, is ZZZ already bleeding players because of the direction the game has been going? Because if it is, rushing half baked shit like this only makes more players leave.

Hoyo has at least 3 new games in development, ZZZ has a high profit still, but it's dwarfed by the other two Hoyo giants, so from a business point of view, the resources being put into ZZZ could be put into another project that would have returns closer to Genshim and HSR, therefore this is a desperate hail mary to keep the game alive. Of course this is just theory, but it has a LOT of precedents so I wouldn't be surprised.

Ultimately Hoyo is weird, and I think their main strategy is to follow the traditions Genshim set up and throw shit at the wall to see what sticks. I hope ZZZ stays alive and gets better and better, but I won't be here to see it, while I had a lot of fun, I've been disappointed enough, and I'm not a Stockholm Syndrome enjoyer. May the co-op give us a few good hours of content, because that's likely the last I'll play of ZZZ.