Honestly, the Shanghai police just cracked down on the city’s first-ever case of “illegal spoilers” in the gaming industry. Three suspects, all born after 2000, were held accountable for hacking into game testing packages and leaking unreleased content from several games, including those from miHoYo.
Here’s the deal. Back in October 2025, the Shanghai police visited miHoYo as part of their “Blue Whale” initiative, which aims to crack down on online crimes. During the visit, they discovered that some users were posting unreleased content from miHoYo’s games, including character designs, scene designs, and skill animations, on online platforms. The videos had racked up millions of views, and the police suspected that the users were infringing on miHoYo’s copyrights.
The police quickly set up a task force to investigate the case, starting from the online accounts of the suspects. They soon identified three suspects – Su, Wu, and Zhou – and apprehended them between October 2025 and January 2026. The police also seized their computers and phones as evidence.
After investigating the suspects, the police found that they were all gamers who wanted to get attention and rewards from online platforms and users. They used technical means to hack into game testing packages, created and posted videos that infringed on miHoYo’s copyrights, and thought they could avoid legal responsibility by simply deleting the videos. Currently, Su and Wu have been prosecuted, while Zhou is under criminal detention. The case is still under investigation.
miHoYo has always taken a zero-tolerance approach to “game spoilers” who use unfair means to obtain and spread unreleased game content. The company has taken several measures to crack down on such behavior.
According to miHoYo, game spoilers not only ruin the gaming experience for players and disrupt the game’s operation schedule, but also damage the game’s reputation and cause huge losses for the company.
As of February 14, some of the suspects involved in the case have been detained by the police, while others have been given administrative penalties. miHoYo has also taken action against over 200 spoilers who maliciously spread leaked content, forcing them to apologize publicly and pay compensation. The highest compensation paid by a single spoiler was 550,000 yuan. These cases include several “firsts” in the country, such as the first case of commercial secret infringement involving unreleased game content, and the first case of recognizing unreleased game content as commercial secrets.
Last September, miHoYo also issued a statement on the issue of game spoilers. A network user known as “Liu XXX” was detained by the police for spreading unreleased content from miHoYo’s games, including character designs and skill animations, for personal gain. Another user, Yang, was banned from operating a QQ channel for spreading leaked game content, while a third user, Guo, was banned from “unpacking” and spreading game testing packages.
Over the past year, miHoYo has maintained its leading position in the global and Chinese gaming markets with its “three-horse carriage” strategy, which includes games like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Tears of Themis. According to Sensor Tower, miHoYo ranked fifth among the top 30 Chinese game publishers in terms of global revenue in 2025. Meanwhile, Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact ranked seventh and ninth, respectively, among the top 30 Chinese games in terms of overseas revenue in 2025.
