Genshin Impact has just made a huge announcement. The huge announcement they made was nothing but the early announcement of their next Special Program, which is quite a significant thing. The game’s Twitter account announced the event for the new version called ‘Luna IV’ to be held on January 2, 2026, a long time before the event officially got its date. You did not read it wrong; it is really 2026. The event will be streamed on their Twitch and YouTube channels at 00:00 UTC-5, and this is really surprising. They have promised to unveil new content and developments along with the regular giveaways and codes but nothing really exciting just the timing.
The first reaction of the audience was to show their anger through confusion, shock, and, to some extent, panic. That Player @jetaimesooshi expressed it in the best way: ‘uhm excuse what the f- HUH HELLO WHAT?! early Luna IV Special Program announcement?!’ That feeling was everywhere. For example, @Double09_X, during the simplest of times, questioned the reason for such an early announcement: ‘WHYS THE ANNOUNCEMENT SO EARLY???’ Another user, @Omega405ogp, merely uttered ‘Way to early’ inferring that it was premature to discuss the next version at all. Just like a character in a horror movie conceptualized by Hoyoverse bypassing the usual hype cycle and directly going to the finale teaser. For others, like @ROZEPOP, the developers paired the current version of ‘Luna III’ with as much boredom as some players do. ‘Y’all just as bored as I am of Luna III,’ they tweeted. That statement was undoubtedly painful, but at the same time, it might have a ring of truth?
And then, the date format confusion that was almost a classic one to be seen. The tweet presented the date as 01/02/2026. For Americans, that means January 2nd. The majority of the world that follows the day/month/year format had their brains temporarily dead. User @Greenjaws18 sum-up the horror moment of that happened worldwide in a very ironic way: ‘It’s always a bit scary for a second if you live in a country that reads the dates as dd/mm/yy. “What do you mean the next patch update isn’t until 1st of February???”’ there quickly developed a sort of mini-debate in the replies about it, with @SparkyTXT stating ‘It’s normal for americann. Everyone else use dd/mm/yyyy.’ Little things can honestly cause the biggest chaos.
However, the excitement was slowly but surely rising over the shock and confusion of the calendar. What is to come in Luna IV? The rumor mill has started. A lot of replies are revolving around one certain character: Columbina. @akbarechoo stated a desire, ‘I HOPE COLUMBINA IS FREE 😞😞😞’, while @FireflyErba2299 more directly telling in a reply, ‘Idc what’s there or what isn’t there, i just want my Columbina and that’s it.’ The desire for this Fatui Harbinger is very strong. Others, like @LukasHesketh, are wanting an even bigger roadmap: ‘Silhouettes for the rest of the year 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 surely.’ They want the whole 2026 vision, not just the next stop.
And the practical-minded ones are always there, of course. @AllanLugo93 immediately asked for a reminder: ‘Can you please remind us 1 week before it? No way I’m remembering the date.’ That is understandable. It’s 2026 anyway. By then we might be concerned about different things. The Brazilian community also had a quick assist from the AI account @grok, who jumped in to explain the local time for the stream to the community. That was indeed community helping community, even though the news is about a fairly distant future.
For some players the whole announcement is like a rollercoaster ride, and they are only feeling pure excitement. @berrydem0n declared ‘WE WILL BE WAITING’, and @hraberuka simply wrote ‘i will be there’ along with a hype GIF. That’s the vibe! The early but yet surprisingly good news of Genshin Impact‘s content promise has made people ready to mark the calendar in the next thousands of years.
But, let’s be honest for a second. Announcing a special program this early is… quite odd indeed. It has turned into a discussion topic among people which is probably the intention behind it. It builds a different kind of expectation—a slow burn rather than last-minute frenzy. It gives the theories a chance to simmer for over a year. What new region could ‘Luna IV’ bring?
