That players are not satisfied when changing a game they enjoy is nothing new. They will usually take to social media or forums to express their displeasure, while some will take things further, for example by staging a cyberattack and attempting to salvage data and code from a studio. It’s rare, though sadly not unprecedented, for some people to take things even further and threaten actual violence, but that’s precisely what happened to Genshin Impact developers miHoYo over the weekend.
According to the Chinese media Baidu, a man was arrested on the night of April 24 in Shanghai on suspicion of the attempted murder of Liu Wei and Cai Haoyu, co-founders of the miHoYo development studio. The man was armed with a knife and had managed to infiltrate the building before being arrested, but fortunately no one was injured in the altercation and the man is now in police custody.
Obviously, there is no justifiable reason to commit murder regardless, but the alleged reasoning behind this man’s actions is stranger than most. It all comes down to a recent update to Honkai Impact 3rd, another of miHoYo’s mobile games. The update, which was applied earlier this month, added rabbit costumes and dance moves related to the game in all markets except China. After a quick backlash from Chinese gamers who found the content out of place and inappropriate, the update was quickly reversed, with an official and apologetic statement posted on the official Honkai Impact 3rd Twitter account on April 22.
Official Statement pic.twitter.com/AsAnabEJGm
— Honkai Impact 3rd (@ HonkaiImpact3rd) April 22, 2021
It is unclear if the anonymous attacker was outraged by the addition of the update and the incorrect wardrobe, or by the fact that it was not released in China and was subsequently removed entirely, but one way or another wanted to get revenge on the developers. of Genshin Impact for whatever the perceived snub was. According to Baidu, he waited for the opportunity to come to Shanghai, armed himself with two 9cm knives, and intended to kill Liu and Cai before committing suicide.
Unfortunately, miHoYo is simply the latest gaming company to face threats of this nature. A devastating arson attack occurred at Kyoto Animation in July 2019, followed by a host of other threats to other studios over the summer, including a shooting at Twitch headquarters and a bomb threat at Bandai Namco.
The attack will certainly have left the people of myHoYo in shock, and no one could blame them for wanting to take time off. But they seem to be moving forward with more Genshin Impact content, including the upcoming 1.5 update that will be released on Wednesday alongside the long-awaited PS5 version of the game. There’s a lot to look forward to in the future of the game, and hopefully that future will be free from more scares like this.
Genshin Impact is available now for mobile devices, PC and PS4. Versions for PS5 and Nintendo Switch are in development.
