Western gamers up in arms after mega-hit Genshin Impact censors words like ‘Taiwan’ and ‘Hong Kong’ in chat feeds
- Threads about chat censorship related to Genshin Impact first started to build up on the game’s subreddit page before hitting social media
- The list of banned words in Chinese games due to political sensitivities runs long
Genshin Impact has been described as the biggest global launch of a Chinese game ever but now Western gamers are calling it out for censoring the words “Taiwan” and “Hong Kong”, among other sensitive political topics in its in-game chat.
Conversations about chat censorship related to Genshin Impact, developed by Shanghai-based miHoYo, first started to build up on the game’s subreddit page.
The controversy then spilled over into social media after well-known Twitch streamer Kazuma Hashimoto, also known as justicekazzy, posted a clip showing how the popular multiplayer online game automatically turns sensitive words into strings of asterisks when typed into the game’s chat box.
“Due to Genshin Impact censoring the words Taiwan and Hong Kong in the in-game chat, I will no longer be posting about the game,” Hashimoto, who is based in Germany, wrote on his Twitter account.
“Yeah … I can’t play it in good conscience,” Hashimoto told the Post when contacted directly. “I’ve raised money for pro-democracy organisations in Hong Kong before, and my best friend is from there, so it wouldn’t be right. And I’m not losing anything by not playing.”
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Last year, Hashimoto decided to quit playing games created by Activision Blizzard after the company moved to punish a Hong Kong e-sports player for chanting a Hong Kong protest slogan in a post-game interview.
miHoYo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the chat filtering issue.
Maybe gamers should not be too surprised though. Censoring sensitive words related to hot-button political topics in China has been standard practice for Chinese games or Western games operating in China for years. Tencent Holdings’ PUBG Mobile, the world’s most lucrative mobile game, bans similar words to the ones Genshin Impact has blocked.
The same holds for the Chinese edition of World of Warcraft, the popular multiplayer game developed by US developer Activision Blizzard and published by Chinese gaming giant NetEase in the country. Developers know it is part of the quid pro quo of doing business in China.
The list of banned words in Chinese games runs long. Politically motivated slogans such as “Tibet independence” and “Hong Kong independence” are filtered, and so are the names of important political figures such as “Xi Jinping” and “Dalai Lama”. Snarky nicknames for political leaders are also banned, such as “Winnie the Pooh”, the Disney cartoon bear which is often used by netizens to reference President Xi Jinping.
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Many other words related to pornography, gambling and other illegal practices are also subject to filtering in video games in China – as is the practice in many Western countries.
Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at gaming consultancy Niko Partners, said that Chinese games and Western games operating in China voluntarily filter sensitive words to remain compliant with Chinese laws, and their approach to chat censorship has been very consistent.
“Although there isn’t an official list of banned words … most companies share essentially the same list,” Ahmad said.
Citing a previous report, Ahmad said that “anything that threatens China’s national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity” would be censored in Chinese games and Western games in China.
“This includes but is not limited to content that interferes with or attacks the sovereignty of China, such as its claim to Taiwan or the South China Sea,” Ahmad and his colleagues wrote in Niko’s China Regulations and Approval Process report.
Released on September 28 on PC, mobile and consoles, Genshin Impact is an open-world action adventure in which users play as young warriors journeying through an expansive post-apocalyptic world. It has become a runaway success for the eight-year-old games developer, grossing more than China’s TikTok and nabbing more views on Twitch than Fortnite on launch day.
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According to app tracking firm Qimai Data, Genshin Impact was the second top-grossing app on Apple’s App Store in China, ahead of ByteDance’s Chinese short-video hit Douyin [the sister app of international version TikTok] on its launch day. In about a day, the game had grossed more than US$1.84 million on iOS, according to Qimai’s estimates.
Although the game’s popularity has pushed the censorship issue up the agenda, Ahmad thinks boycotts of the game will likely remain limited.
