Recently, Cognosphere – the publisher behind the hit game Honkai: Star Rail – has announced the development of a mobile game with a reward pool of up to $150,000, accusing an individual of serious violations related to unauthorized content dissemination that had not been officially released.
This legal action once again highlights the growing concerns of major game companies in the ongoing battle against information leaks.
Cognosphere is a long-term publishing partner of HoYoverse, the “parent company” of popular titles such as Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, and Zenless Zone Zero.
These games are often the target of data mining, ranging from character artwork, game assets, to unreleased plot details. Previously, this publisher had encountered Ubatcha, a well-known leaker specializing in information about Genshin Impact, as well as Discord servers that spread leaked information. Returning to the current situation, the accused is a user named Alfredo Lopez. This individual is accused of livestreaming gameplay footage of the 5-star character Castorice – who has yet to be officially released at the time of the Discord leak, prior to this character’s official debut in version 3.2. Specifically, the livestream attracted over 12,000 views from the online community, generating significant interest.
Cognosphere stated that the unauthorized dissemination of such content not only violates copyrights but also severely impacts user experience, undermining the essential surprise factor – one of the critical elements that create the allure of gacha games like Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact. This time, the case against Alfredo Lopez is a part of a larger legal campaign that Cognosphere is currently pursuing. According to game industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, the company has taken action against over 500 similar incidents related to information leaks to date.
Cognosphere firmly believes that distributing unreleased content is an unacceptable practice that causes harm both to developers and the gaming community. Especially as HoYoverse is preparing to launch a completely new game – Honkai: Nexus Anima, the measures to safeguard and control leaked information are expected to be increasingly stringent in the near future.
