The Genshin Impact voice actors for Paimon and Kazuha‘s unnamed friend – affectionately called Tomo by the community – have started sharing their dissatisfaction with an alleged lack of payment for their work on the anime game. Both voice actors claim that they haven’t been paid in months, as Genshin Impact reports massive profits.
Brandon Winckler, the voice of Kazuha’s friend and many other minor characters, was the first to come out and tweet their frustrations. They laid out the details in a thread, saying it’s “Inexcusable for us as actors to be waiting 4+ months for pay when you make $86 million per month.”
They also go on to say that this is not an uncommon problem, following up with these personal details:
“It’s really hard to justify working on something for the sake of work when you can’t afford to eat. Many non-union productions have this problem, I’ve waited anywhere from 4-8 months for payment, and even then, it isn’t much to ask. 1000 here, 500 there, and it adds up fast.”
Winckler ends the thread by stating that they “personally won’t be working on this game anymore unless it goes under a Union contract.”
Winckler’s sentiment about unions is one that was also shared by Corina Boettger, who voices Paimon. This is a huge deal, considering Boettger has the most lines out of any character in the entire game. They also created their own thread to provide their opinion on the matter:
“Again… been working for MONTHS unpaid on a BIG project for a studio. I am owed THOUSANDS of dollars. I am struggling currently to pay rent because of this. This project has made BILLIONS. This project should be Union.”
Both Winckler and Boettger soon clarified that the Formosa Interactive studio, not HoYoverse, is likely the party at fault for the lack of payments.
In fact, just hours ago, HoYoverse gave a statement to Sports Illustrated on the situation, confirming that they’ve made timely payments to the recording studio:
“We truly regret to learn about the ongoing situation. Genshin Impact values and respects the work and effort of everyone involved, and we support our voice actors to claim their proper due. We have made payments to our recording studio on time, and we immediately urged the studio to pay our voice actors from our past payment. Meanwhile, we are also seeking alternative solutions. And we will keep you posted on further developments.”
Hopefully, the apparent Genshin Impact pay issue is resolved soon, especially considering the major Genshin Impact version 4.0 update is right around the corner.