Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo has hit Twitter with a subpoena to acquire the identities of a group of leakers.
Per Axios, publisher Cognosphere used a California court to request “information…sufficient to identify” three Twitter users who released images and information of then-unreleased content for the popular online game. That requested information includes real names, along with IP and email addresses.
MiHoYo believes that the three leakers in question obtained their footage via test builds of Genshin Impact. Earlier in the month, Cognosphere asked Twitter to take down the leaks on the basis of copyright violations, but those tweets remain active at time of writing.
This past January, MiHoYo hit four Genshin Impact leakers with DMCA notices, so it appears the developer is aiming to crack down where possible.
Big-Name Game Leaks
Developers taking legal action against leakers is nothing new. While Genshin’s leak isn’t as big as fairly recent offenders such as Rockstar with Grand Theft Auto 6, the severity of a developer’s legal action often depends on how high-profile the game in question is.
In 2019, for example, the Pokémon Company sued a pair of leakers who uploaded photographs of an unreleased strategy guide for the then-upcoming Pokémon Sword and Shield. Two years later, the leakers were ordered to pay $150,000 each to the developer.
Speaking to Axios, one of the leakers claimed to be unbothered by MiHoYo’s efforts to pursue them. In their eyes, the leaks were brought on in part by the developer’s secretive nature and the enthusiastic player base Genshin Impact has.
The leaker reportedly just shrugged and told Axios, “If they are really coming after me, that mean[s] I’m a next target now.”