Title: Game Test Gameplay Leaked, miHoYo Seeks Injunction Protection
Popular new game versions are still in testing, but gameplay footage from the upcoming versions has already leaked on social platforms, with video views reaching millions. Was it a teaser trailer or intentional leaks? Recently, the operation teams of miHoYo, the developer of “Genshin Impact” and “Balkara: Star Rail,” filed an application for an injunction with the Shanghai Xuhui District People’s Court. The court convened a hearing to review the application and, upon examination, issued an injunction order requiring the game streamer Wuijij to immediately stop disseminating gameplay footage of the unreleased versions of “Genshin Impact” and “Balkara: Star Rail.” The order was promptly enforced.
“Genshin Impact” and “Balkara: Star Rail” are highly successful games with significant commercial value. The dynamic gameplay scenes featuring characters, designs, animations, and skill effects constitute a “film and television work” as defined under the “Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China.” miHoYo holds the copyright for these scenes. However, miHoYo discovered that Wuijij, a game streamer on a designated Douyin account, had been continuously and specifically disclosing and spreading gameplay footage of the unreleased versions of “Genshin Impact” and “Balkara: Star Rail” over an extended period. The videos were published during the pre-release testing phase, with individual videos reaching as high as 3.96 million views and 1.385 million views, respectively.
miHoYo believes that Wuijij’s actions not only infringe upon the company’s copyright but also violate industry standards and norms followed in the gaming sector, disrupting the game’s release and promotion schedule and harming the company’s interests. The court, after considering the four key aspects of the application��whether the facts supporting the request are factual and legal, whether it would cause irreparable harm to the applicant’s interests, whether it would lead to a significant imbalance in the interests of the parties involved, and whether it would harm public interests��issued an injunction order. The court found that Wuijij had been continuously posting gameplay footage of “Genshin Impact” and “Balkara: Star Rail” on the Douyin platform, which included characters, weapons, monsters, maps, storylines, gameplay elements, and event tasks that miHoYo had not yet made public. Both games are highly popular and commercially valuable, and Wuijij’s “leak and preview” behavior could significantly diminish the player experience when the new versions are officially released. This could disrupt miHoYo’s operational strategy and could also lead to further leaks of the unreleased game content, causing significant financial losses to the company. Therefore, the court issued the injunction order.