miHoYo releases the AI companion app BSide: Olivia Lin on Steam Early Access.

      On Monday, the Chinese gaming company miHoYo introduced Early Access for its AI companion application, BSide: Olivia Lin, on Steam. In contrast to the studio's anime-style video games, this new offering is categorized as a Free to Play Utility rather than a game, representing miHoYo’s ongoing initiative to branch out from interactive entertainment into AI-driven digital companionship.

      The app centers around Olivia Lin, a virtual character crafted as a Shanghai student who majors in piano and minors in psychology. As per her official profile, she has a fondness for vinyl records, classic films, and rainy days, and is dedicated to examining the link between music and memories.

      Olivia’s introduction was not immediate. The character first appeared on Bilibili in August 2025, where she gained popularity through piano performance videos that showcased realistic motion capture, synchronized lip movements, and a grounded visual aesthetic. Earlier this March, her account broadened to include letter-reading and reply videos, establishing the groundwork for the app’s interactive experience ahead of its release.

      Instead of being a conventional game, BSide: Olivia Lin integrates AI interaction, music creation, and desktop customization into a lightweight companion app focused on music and emotional connection. Users can watch Olivia play various piano compositions, while musicians have the ability to upload their own MIDI files and utilize AI to create animated performance videos based on their music.

      Additionally, the app offers a letter-based AI chat system for users to share their thoughts, document daily experiences, or express their feelings through text. Olivia interacts in character, providing personalized responses rooted in her personality and backstory. She can also be set as a live Windows desktop wallpaper, enabling users to initiate piano performances and other simple interactions without needing to launch the main application.

      Player feedback has largely been critical in several aspects. Many users downloaded BSide: Olivia Lin with the expectation of a new game from miHoYo, only to discover that it is a utility app lacking a main storyline or gameplay mechanics, resulting in a significant disconnect between their expectations and the actual experience.

      Players have noted that the Early Access version appears unfinished, highlighting formulaic AI letter responses and glitches that can lead to audio and video desynchronization when generating videos from specific MIDI files. Additional concerns include the necessity to link a miHoYo Pass account before logging in, which some users find makes the onboarding process unnecessarily complicated.

      Some have also questioned whether the app’s relatively limited content suggests that it serves more as a platform for gathering conversational data to train AI models rather than as a fully developed standalone AI companion product.

      The system requirements are fairly modest. According to the Steam listing, the app needs a 64-bit version of Windows 10 (version 1809 or later), 4GB of RAM, a quad-core processor, and Intel HD Graphics 4000 or newer. The base installation takes up about 6GB of storage, while the full music library demands around 100GB. During the Early Access phase, users must link their miHoYo Pass account and can optionally connect it to Steam. All core features are currently available for free.

      miHoYo has stated that the project is still actively being developed, with Early Access mainly aimed at collecting player feedback before enhancing features and improving the overall experience. The current version is relatively limited in features, and whether it can carve out a niche in the increasingly crowded AI companion market may hinge on its capacity to establish a distinct value proposition through future updates. Presently, the app has exceeded 100,000 free downloads on Steam.

      Jessie Wu is a tech reporter located in Shanghai. She covers consumer electronics, semiconductors, and the gaming sector for TechNode. Connect with her via email: jessie.wu@technode.com.