Developing Wuthering Waves: "Every addition requires months or longer to meet our quality standards"

• Wuthering Waves launched its version 3.0 update in December 2025.
• The team discusses development timelines, collaborations and the importance of a compelling narrative.

Kuro Games' open-world gacha Wuthering Waves launched its major version 3.0 update in December and has continued rolling out new features and content since, as the hit game surfs closer towards its second anniversary this May.

Version 3.0 introduced a new arc and setting in Lahai-Roi, a hot underground haven with its own unique ecosystem. As fans continue to explore this new region, we speak with the team at Kuro Games about the latest big changes, collaborations, narrative direction and keeping players engaged long-term.

"As Wuthering Waves is a long-term live service game, our goal is to consistently deliver fresh, high-quality content to our players. Versions 3.0 and 3.1 are key milestones in our long-term roadmap," the team begins.

"In these two recent versions, we introduced over 10 hours of brand-new main story content and added over 60 square kilometres of explorable areas, including 15 distinct ecological sub-regions. Alongside the new map, we also introduced around 30 new monsters and 17 brand-new Echoes, ensuring that every inch of the world feels fresh to explore."

Versions, revisions and collaborations

Kuro Games is no stranger to updates and enhancements, with revisions key to Wuthering Waves’ success since the beginning. Between its first closed beta and full release on May 23rd, 2024, the title saw changes to its cinematics and quests as well as a rewrite of most of its story.

Those changes paid off almost immediately, as the game sailed past $100 million in estimated mobile revenue in under two months and surpassed $300m in its first year. AppMagic data suggests lifetime player spending hit half a billion on mobile this February.

Today, the team continues to deliver new content with "wave-like pacing", often lasting up to six weeks before the next major update. The aim is to give players enough time to fully experience an update’s maps and story without feeling rushed, while at the same time, providing the development team with sufficient time to polish the next update.

Version 2.8 lasted five weeks and was followed by 3.0 on December 25th. Version 3.1 came six weeks later, on February 5th, and 3.2 has just launched on March 19th.

"We don't push out content solely to meet specific marketing windows. Instead, we stick to a consistent, long-term rhythm of development," the team states.

"Every addition requires months or longer to meet our quality standards. This wave-like rhythm is ultimately about finding the optimal balance between giving players time to absorb the content and the teams time to refine it, so that every update is worth anticipating and every wait worthwhile."

Among the new features in version 3.0 and beyond, the Wuthering Waves team highlights the motorcycle as its new take on open-world transportation. This allows players to boost, drift and jump through Lahai-Roi, and has the extra benefit of collaborative potential with other brands.

"It not only provides players a new way to traverse the map but also, through crossover designs from franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog and the Persona series, has become a bridge connecting different cultural experiences," the team shares.

"Who wouldn't want to speed into the sunset on a motorcycle covered with Joker stickers while blasting Life Will Change? Our players were pleasantly surprised by the collaboration, and we received lots of positive feedback. We'll continue exploring crossover collaborations with more franchises in the future."

Six crossover motorcycle sticker designs were available for free during version 3.0. The team hopes this showcases the "flexibility" of Wuthering Waves’ world. In the near future, a collaboration is planned with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Outside the motorcycle, recent updates have brought refinements, UI changes and quality-of-life updates like Resource Cleanup for mobile optimisation. Ensuring consistency across platforms has always been a key focus for Kuro Games, especially in the context of performance and optimisation.

After a major update: what comes next?

Many gacha RPGs introduce a major version update once per year, with iterative updates expanding on a new location or setting over the months that follow. For some, this means the year’s biggest spending spike comes during that major update and a gradual decline follows until the next big version.

In Wuthering Waves’ case, version 2.0 debuted in January 2025 and triggered a stark rise in estimated player spending at the time. Rather than declining shortly thereafter, it actually sustained growth until June 2025, the game’s third highest-grossing month on mobile ever.

Fast-forwarding to version 3.0 in December, again this latest major update has introduced plenty of fresh content with its new region, events and story arc. Kuro Games confirms that on the day version 3.0 launched, Wuthering Waves hit the top rankings on iOS revenue charts across multiple global regions and smashed its concurrent players record on Steam.

We ask how Wuthering Waves plans to once again keep momentum after this comeback, through version 3.1, 3.2 and beyond.

"Instead of calling 3.0 a ‘comeback’, we prefer to see it as a continuation, or even surpassing, of the solid momentum achieved by our 2.x versions," the team clarifies.

Expanding on that continuation, Kuro Games notes how version 3.1 introduced "plenty for exploration enthusiasts" with new frostlands added in contrast to Lahai-Roi’s academy from 3.0. Again, players can freely explore the area while riding their new motorcycles.

The update also focused on narrative and received "very positive feedback" from players worldwide, a payoff after the writing staff focused on emotional impact. It’s said that writers, environmental designers, voice actors and the cinematics team all repeatedly polished every detail of the update.

Version 3.1’s additions indeed appear to have built upon prior momentum. AppMagic estimates point to February 2026 as Wuthering Waves’ second most-lucrative month ever on mobile with an estimated $46.3m generated, second only to the game’s first full month in June 2024. Though no specific KPIs are confirmed by Kuro Games, the team acknowledges a "new revenue peak brought by version 3.1".

"Narratively, 3.1 was undoubtedly an all-out effort for us. We've seen Aemeath's storyline resonate strongly with players, and this response continues to motivate us to give our very best."

The value of story

Discussing story, Kuro Games reveals its three-layered structure which feeds into its overall narrative appeal: intuitive appeal, story logic, and core expression.

The intuitive, foundational level means players should get a sense of the characters by how they move and operate even if users choose to skip cutscenes. Meanwhile, foreshadowing and story logic should prove "a solid framework for emotional impact". The deepest layer, core expression, aims to embed "profound themes" into story details for sharp-eyed players.

Much of what played out in version 3.1 was foreshadowed in 3.0 and even 2.8, fitting that "story logic" element of Kuro Games’ narrative structure. This helped create a sense of continuity.

"The story is the main highlight for this update. The new Resonator, Aemeath, holds a secret crucial to the survival of Lahai-Roi and, as players may note, shares a deep connection with the protagonist. As the story unfolds, new revelations about the protagonist's past and the mysteries of the world will emerge, along with several unexpected twists," the team explains.

"Rover's characterisation is a prime example of our character creation philosophy. When designing Rover's action logic, we focused heavily on creating emotional resonance with players. Our goal is for each choice Rover makes to evoke genuine feelings and make players wonder what they would do in Rover's place."

Kuro Games also wants to "make it easy for prospective new players to jump into this adventure anytime, anywhere". As many newcomers previously complained about being unable to catch up with the latest story right off the bat, feedback led to a mechanic called Express Routes, designed to allow users to jump to story content from version 2.0 and now version 3.0.

Kuro Games gathers feedback through social listening, customer service feedback channels, in-game surveys and more.

"Player feedback is extremely important to us. Wuthering Waves is a long-term live service game, which means that instead of us spoon-feeding the content to our players, we're actually writing the game's history with them. The stronger our mutual understanding, the further we can go together," the team shares.

"Wuthering Waves is a game meant to operate for many years. All feedback we've received, whether positive or negative, is valuable for us, but we won't be trapped in the past."

In under two years, Wuthering Waves has helped Kuro Games accrue accolades like The Game Awards’ Players’ Voice award, Google Play's Best Ongoing Game award, the Sony Partner Award and a spot among PocketGamer.biz’s Top 50 Mobile Game Makers in 2024. The team is excited by growing recognition in the industry, but believes it "can always do better".

Finally, we ask about the most important lesson Kuro Games has learned from Wuthering Waves.

"The most important lesson we've learned is to persist in doing what should be done. A simple concept, but it requires tremendous determination to execute. The needs of users and the industry are constantly changing, so we must always stay flexible and consider what we should be doing at each moment. Only then can we grow and move forward with our players."