A big part of the Genshin Impact experience is the rumors and leaks you hear down the grapevine. Twitter posts, Reddit threads, and news stories always track down the latest news from notable leakers and post them for the community to see. However, leaking is always a huge source of controversy, with the potential for falsities and spoilers. But despite how you fit on the “pro-leak” or “anti-leak” spectrum, it appears they will slow down significantly as developer miHoYo is trying its best to stop the spoilers altogether.
This “leaker hunt decree” (a term floated around by the community) culminated with the cease and desist order of the website popular for leakers, Honey Hunter. The site is a prolific hub for Genshin Impact character data, creating a public domain to check out a character’s specific abilities, damage percentages, and even voicelines. But the site participated in using information and numbers from Genshin Impact beta tests and other leaks.
The “leaker hunt decree” explained
The mass crackdown began when the social media site Bilibili (a video-sharing website in China) was sued by miHoYo in an attempt to track down the website’s most active leakers. Now, it appears miHoYo is reaching out on a more global scale. Popular (and reliable) leakers in the community such as @SsukunaaA and @abc64real have closed their accounts, and other communities like the Wansheng Funeral Parlor have decided to stop posting leaks.
News of the Honey Hunter cease-and-desist order broke today, as the creator announced publicly through Twitter and on the official website. The legal team of miHoYo requested that Honey Hunter partakes in an “immediate intervention or prevention of these infringing conducts duly” and to “stop hosting the website or invalidating the [Genshin Impact Honey Hunter site].” The website owner has stated they will close the website, although said to “stay tuned until further notice” as they get legal counsel themselves. According to Honey Hunter, the website security company Cloudflare which hosts Honey Hunter has also received a notice from miHoYo.
According to the website owner, miHoYo has asked them to take down the entire Honey Hunter domain, which also collects information for other games aside from Genshin Impact. However, the message posted on the site only seems to indicate a closure of the Genshin Impact section of the site.
The future of leaks
In response to the mass removal of leakers in the community, several leaks have surfaced before the closure of accounts. @SsukunaaA posted a list of 15 questionable leaks, implying that the leaks contained a mixture of truths and falsities. (The leak contains information about several unreleased characters, such as Kamisato Ayato and Yae Miko.) Additionally, cutscenes and characters from future events have been leaked, including someone named Yelan.
Not all leakers have left the scene, however. While this is subject to change, as leakers are dropping by the minute, there are other reliable leakers who haven’t indicated their departures. For example, leaker @UBatcha is still posting information through their Twitter account, purporting to have information on Yelan and Ayato.
Personally, I don’t think this necessarily spells the end of leakers altogether. Dataminers will continue to reveal information from future beta tests (that’s how we got information about the upcoming character Thoma), and I’m sure some brave souls will come out in the future with some bombshells down the line. After all, you cut off one hydra head, and two will take its place.
