HoYoverse, the publisher of Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero, is suing a player for $150,000 after they reportedly leaked a character before their official release.
Like Nintendo, HoYoverse is known to take action against those who leak their intellectual property. In 2024, the company compelled social media platform X to hand over several prominent leaker accounts’ names, phone numbers, emails, and IP addresses.
This led to many leakers going into hiding and shutting down their accounts to avoid legal repercussions. HoYoverse takes the same approach to cheaters, vowing to take legal action against developers and players who use plug-ins to get an unfair advantage.
HoYoverse has now set its sights on a Honkai Star Rail player who streamed unreleased gameplay, hitting them with a $150,000 fine.
HoYoverse sues HSR player for $150,000
According to Game File, HoYoverse is suing Alfredo Lopez, a player who broadcast leaked gameplay of Castorice to a Discord of 12,000 members. It’s unclear how Lopez got hold of the character before her 3.2 release, but HoYoverse is moving to punish those it deems as having “unfairly or unlawfully obtained a game update before its release date.”
This includes posting leaked videos, images, or engaging in online discussions about their experience with unreleased content. HoYoverse says, “This dampens the excitement and anticipation that many players feel when they obtain the update legitimately upon its official release, which further harms the user experience that the Plaintiff strives to protect.”
Lopez isn’t the only one to be targeted by HoYoverse. Video Game Market analyst, Daniel Ahmad, notes that “[HoYoverse] has initiated over 500 legal cases iirc. They even have precedent-setting cases in China that have led to certain game content leaks being labelled as a violation of trade secrets.”
It’s clear that HoYoverse takes the protection of its intellectual property seriously, and it’s hoped that by handing out hefty punishments, players will be discouraged from leaking unreleased content.
Nintendo is another gaming company that famously made headlines after they forced a hacker to pay them for life after being released from prison.
