Genshin Impact’s publisher Mihoyo has been cracking down on leakers since last year. Their search was the help of actual law enforcement agencies. Suffice to say, they were able to track down a number of them. With that, the leakers have since gone silent, and those who were caught have been penalized to pay up.
How much money did Mihoyo get and from whom?
The estimated amount is over $5 million, but this is a combined number from over 2,000 leakers. So, this isn’t just one person, and with this move, it is safe to assume that there won’t be any leakers or leaked content any time soon.
However, it isn’t just leakers who got caught and fined. We’re putting in people who made cheats, secret servers, and unlawful account sellers. Mihoyo didn’t just drop the ban hammer, but dropped the fine hammer as well. Would this stop future leakers and others?
Leakers may still come back, and others
This won’t necessarily stop the leaking problem. Right now, popular leakers and websites have shut down or gone into hiding. That doesn’t mean that this will put an end to it. Think of it as a stagnant period, and they’ll come back once the heat is over.
Genshin is coming up on its sixth year, and people are still playing the game. There is a possibility that leakers will be back, but they’ll be extra careful with their dealings. Genshin and other Mihoyo games still rely on people to test their upcoming content, like characters and more.
Most leakers do get it from being beta testers for the content. While there are some who do it for free, think of it as flexing; there are those who do it for money. This is why the crackdown got even more serious, because some leakers were allegedly selling the leaks to competitors and other entities.
Is it fair that these people got penalized and had to pay?
When beta testers are picked, they are made to agree to an NDA. Leaking it alone (regardless of profit or not) is already a violation of the NDA. That is already grounds for being made to face legal actions. It is amazing how it took Mihoyo this long to take action. Perhaps the selling of the information was what really made them think twice about legal actions. They did claim that because of leaks, potential character banners didn’t earn as much because the players weren’t too enticed with the content.
On the opposite end, some people think leaking is fine, as long as the leakers aren’t making any profit, because it would then be unfair to Mihoyo. Players look at leaks and determine if the upcoming content is good enough to spend money on. Maybe that’s why Mihoyo doesn’t want any leaks, so that if it does turn out to be bad, people can still pay for the content. Regardless, Mihoyo is well within its rights to protect its IP when leakers are getting out of control.
