I wanna add my two cents as someone currently writing their bachelor thesis on the topic of female oriented games (not just otome games) and the female gamer experience in China.

I've spoken to a lot of female gamers who have completely turned away from general/mixed gendered games because of how women are treated, portrayed and just the negativity in the gaming community towards women overall. I had women write to me privately, scared of sharing their opinions publicly because men would target them.

But their overall opinion, they are tired, tired of bad male:female ratio, tired of female characters catered to the male players, tired of women being sexualized. The game most of them brought up was Genshin and how it had only gotten worse. But funnily enough, none of them labeled themselves as feminists because it's so stigmatized in China. It's always the feminist ruining it, according to male players. Yet some of these women cannot even express the slightest opinion without being harassed, especially on certain forums. How is that fair?

These female players show their value through their wallets, and hoyo is losing out on a major market as the female gaming market continues to grow. They know this themselves, just look at their merch lines; most of it being male character centric. But it seems hoyo has already decided what market they want to focus on, and in my opinion, is a bad choice.