Genshin Impact creator miHoYo has selected Singapore as its base of operations for metaverse subsidiary HoYoverse, reports the South China Morning Post. The company plans to add hundreds of jobs at the new location by the end of the year, with 51 openings currently open.

The new location will be the fifth overseas outpost for the company, which also has offices in Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, and Montreal. It will serve as a hub for “global distribution and operations” and work closely with other company offices.

“Our team in Singapore will play a crucial role in broadening our global development and service network,” said HoYoverse and MiHoYo co-founder Liu Wei.

The selection of Singapore for a new base follows an ongoing trend for Chinese developers, who are increasingly opening locations in the city state in the wake of strict regulations on the Chinese gaming industry.

The metaverse is coming

While analysts suggest that the Chinese metaverse industry could become an $8 trillion market in the future, the country’s strict regulations could hamper efforts for Chinese developers to enter the meta space. By shifting development of this arm of the business overseas, MiHoYo can work under more lenient regulations.

MiHoYo also announced a $14.8 million investment in an industry find set up by hardware manufacturer Geortek. This investment represents an 18 per cent stake in the Qingdao Tongge Phase I Venture Capital Fund Partnership, which focuses on start-up’s across a range of fields, such as VR and AR. This comes in the wake of MiHoYo co founder’s vow to help create a virtual world where “one billion people around the world can live” within the next thirty years.