miHoYo, the creators of Genshin Impact, have taken strong action against leakers and fan sites containing leaks in recent weeks. Now it has also affected Honey Impact – one of the main fan sites for information about the game. MeinMMO reports on the incidents and the community reactions.
Honey Impact has one of the largest collections of data, facts, images, and general information about Genshin Impact. It has become an important resource for many content creators and players. Additionally, it hosts leaks about upcoming content in the game.
What has happened between Genshin and Honey Impact? The owner tweeted that Genshin Impact is trying to shut down the site behind the scenes:
What are hosting providers and Cloudflare? A hosting provider, like IONOS-AS, is responsible for bringing a website live and making it accessible to users. It also allows you to determine the web address of your site. Something like Cloudflare is meant to, broadly speaking, provide more security and speed on websites.
On the site itself, you can get a full overview of the messages sent by miHoYo (via Honey Impact). They had informed the hosting service of Honey Impact, IONOS-AS, about the violation of copyright rights and requested that the site no longer be hosted under “genshin.honeyhunterworld.com”. Cloudflare was also notified of this content.
The owner of Honey Impact is angry at miHoYo
The owner of Honey Impact is sure:
Instead of miHoYo contacting us or me personally, they are trying to make us disappear from the scene behind our backs. (Which is not surprising, given how greedy they are for money and that extortion is part of their corporate policy)
via Honey Impact
He called for miHoYo to be publicly tagged while sharing this post on social media. The owner is upset and sad that other sites and content creators would also suffer because they would use Honey Impact as a resource. They would now surely also face problems.
He also does not understand why miHoYo demands that his entire site be taken offline. He could take offline the sites that the Genshin Impact creators do not find appropriate.
He believes that it is a gray area to prohibit people from creating content or fan sites just because miHoYo are the owners of the game.
As upset as Honey Impact was, they temporarily created a footer reflecting the anger:
So respectful wow pic.twitter.com/BcuT73o8ls
— Nogami Ventus (@NogamiV) September 12, 2021
However, after it caused an uproar in the community and in the comments of Honey Impact, it was deleted. Some in the community said they would never visit the site again.
A well-known YouTuber and streamer even created a video criticizing the footer (via YouTube). This is AsianGuyStream, also known as Atsu. He has been producing content for and with Genshin Impact for a while.
In his video, he highlights the racist comments in the former footer of the site, which probably ultimately led to the owner removing the footer. Atsu was also recently very engaged in the Genshin Impact racism debate between two other streamers.
What will happen to Honey Impact now? Will the site soon be inaccessible again? So far it seems not. Honey Impact tweeted that they will now host their site elsewhere (via Twitter). They also want to remove watermarks and everything that violates copyright from the site.
No more leaks? Community demands a road map
Not only Honey Impact was forced by miHoYo to quit the leaks and site. Also, BilliBilli, basically the Chinese YouTube, was sued by Genshin Impact (via Twitter). They aimed to get the platform to disclose personal information about the leakers. The site was partially offline and had limited access.
Subsequently, known Twitter leakers, such as abc64, Sukuna, and Yoimiya Impact deleted their accounts. Dimbreath still has his Twitter account but on September 9 posted a tweet suggesting that there will be no more leaks from his side for the time being (via Twitter).
How does the community react? The community is divided between Party 1: “we understand miHoYo” and Party 2: “Leaks are what motivate us”. While Party 1 says that the creators are working hard and naturally don’t want everything leaked weeks in advance, Party 2 argues that they can save better for certain characters and are also willing to invest money in the game.
Additionally, a Twitter user made a request that was shared on reddit and generated nearly 21,000 upvotes within a few days (via reddit). It concerns this tweet:
The reddit users had the following to say about the request:
- Vodkasheep: “They (miHoYo) had a road map for Patch 1.1-1.3 but stopped because they didn’t want people to plan in advance. Maximizing the impulse buying.” (via reddit)
- Leshawkcomics brings up the Raiden Shogun banner as an example, which was known long in advance: “Baal was hyped before release, even with her mistakes, she was the best banner. (based on sales figures) Many people I know set aside real money for her to whale (i.e. spend a lot of money). (…)” (via reddit)
- Substiantial_Fan_9582 is sure: “Road maps are always welcome. However, you should realize that all gacha games are based on “the weakness of man” aka “impulse buying”, unless you’ve never played a gacha game. So, the road map is welcome but probably won’t happen.” (via reddit)
- Hajiishere: “The funny thing is, people want road maps for characters, but they’re probably more likely to create road maps for other content, which they already do every six weeks.” (via reddit)
It remains to be seen how miHoYo will proceed in the future and whether there will be leaks for Patch 2.3 as there have been for 2.2.
What do you think about the escapade between miHoYo and the community? Do you think they are overreacting or do they have the right to prohibit leaks? Do you belong to Party 1 or 2? Please feel free to share in the comments.
Speaking of leaks. We have summarized the existing leaks in this article: Genshin Impact: Everything about Patch 2.2 – Leaks, Release, Banners, Characters
