After Genshin Impact 1.5 update leaks, MiHoYo is threatening to crack down

GEnshin Impact - Traveller
(Image credit: MiHoYo)
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(Image credit: MiHoYo)

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Genshin Impact's current update is barely a day old, but several players have already leaked a significant number of features from its upcoming 1.5 update, coming later this year. In addition to two new characters, it looks like Genshin Impact might be getting some form of player housing and a new boss fight later this year. In response to the leaks (which have been an ongoing issue since Genshin's launch), MiHoYo released a statement asking players to stay away from leaks and promising it will "increase its efforts to deal with illegal disclosures."

"Recently, we discovered the dissemination of leaked version 1.5 content," MiHoYo wrote in a tweet from the official Genshin Impact Twitter account. "Such behavior not only disrupts our plans to develop and promote the new version, but also causes some Travelers to have misconceptions about the content of the new version."

"Here, we kindly ask for the support and help of all Travelers to resist leaks, and maintain a fair gaming environment. We will also increase our efforts to deal with such illegal disclosures," MiHoYo wrote in a followup tweet.

Since its launch, a number of Genshin Impact's updates and upcoming features have been leaked by players with access to closed beta tests. This round of 1.5 leaks sprung up over the weekend and is supposedly the result of MiHoYo accidentally releasing a development build that prominent leakers in the community quickly got ahold of and began datamining. The Genshin Impact subreddit has a thread compiling all the leaked information for those who don't care about spoilers.

While leaks feel like an inevitable part of live service games, I can sympathize with MiHoYo wanting to stop players from getting the wrong idea about what an update might contain. As GamesRadar notes, previous leaked characters have sparked some major drama in the community. Back in 2020, Geo polearm-wielder Zhongli had his abilities leaked while he was only available in the beta. Before he was properly released, however, MiHoYo heavily nerfed his powers, which sparked outrage from players who expected him to be unchanged from the beta.

Over on the subreddit, a now-deleted post discussing the leaks also had players concerned over how they might affect the overall quality of the game. If MiHoYo decided to clamp down on beta tests or even remove them altogether, players speculate future updates could be more prone to bugs that would've been squashed with proper feedback.

It's not clear if this latest batch of leaks will amount to any significant change in Genshin Impact's development. And we'll have to wait for the 1.5 reveal event (which should happen in a month or so) before we have a clear idea of exactly what 1.5 will look like.The 1.4 update, which adds new quests, a dating sim-style mode, and the Windblume Festival, is out now. Here's everything you need to know about Genshin Impact update 1.4. 

Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.