A team of three individuals who were creating Genshin Impact cheats has recently been sentenced to jail time after HoYoverse filed a report with the district police in 2021. The trio was also allegedly selling these cheats to other RPG players, which prompted developer HoYoverse to take legal action. This seems to be the first instance of Genshin Impact cheaters receiving jail time, though, in this particular situation, the cheaters apparently developed their own cheat software that enabled others to cheat as well.
A report from GameRes says the cheat software that the group created in 2020 allowed players to obtain infinite amounts of Primogems and other valuable in-game items. They sold about 40,000 keys for said software to players who wanted to make use of it. These keys were sold from October 2020 to May 2021, providing the cheat creators with nearly $300,000 USD in profits.
After all three individuals pled guilty during the trial, the sentencing resulted in the group’s leader receiving a jail term of four years along with a 50,000 RMB (renminbi — the official Chinese currency) fine. The second group member was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail with a 50,000 RMB fine, and the third group member was given one year and six months of jail time with a 10,000 RMB fine. For reference, 50,000 RMB is currently equal to about $7,436 USD.
This isn’t the first time that HoYoverse has cracked down on players for Genshin Impact-related offenses. Earlier this year, the developer banned and fined a leaker around $78,000 USD for revealing early footage and information from the version 2.5 beta.
The sentencing comes just weeks before the launch of Genshin Impact version 3.0, and may serve as a warning for those looking to do the same when the new region, Sumeru, and its new characters are added to the ever-expanding map of Teyvat.