First of Its Kind: Shanghai Police Bust Major Game Leak Tied to miHoYo

Shanghai police have solved the city's first criminal case involving the online leakage of unreleased content from popular video games, marking a landmark law enforcement action for the local gaming industry.

The investigation was launched in October 2025 during a routine police visit to China's leading game developer miHoYo's premises in Xuhui District. Officers discovered that large caches of unreleased game materials – including character designs, in-game scenes and skill animation footage for titles such as "Genshin Impact" – had been posted to online video platforms. Several of the infringing videos racked up more than 100,000 views, immediately raising red flags of suspected copyright violations.

Investigators traced the online accounts and identified three suspects surnamed Su, Wu and Zhou, who later were arrested.

Police said the trio, all avid gamers born after 2000, had stolen internal game test builds to extract the unreleased content, which they then uploaded as videos online. Notably, Zhou is a doctoral candidate majoring in mathematics.

Their motive, police said, was to drive traffic to their accounts, secure platform rewards and collect tips from viewers.

The suspects said they falsely believed that deleting the videos after receiving warnings from the platforms would shield them from legal consequences.

Su and Wu have been transferred to prosecutors on suspicion of copyright infringement. Zhou has been placed under criminal detention, and the case remains under investigation.

Xuhui District is a core hub for Shanghai's video gaming industry. In recent years, several major developers in the area have faced persistent leaks of unreleased content during the research and development stage.

In the past, bringing criminal cases over such conduct has faced hurdles, particularly in establishing criminal liability, securing evidence and quantifying losses.

A key legal shift came in April 2025, when the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a judicial interpretation clarifying the application of criminal law in intellectual property cases. The document set clear standards for defining "unauthorized use" and "reproduction and distribution" of copyrighted material, and adjusted the thresholds for criminal liability in copyright infringement cases.

Police noted that under previous rules, criminal cases typically required illegal proceeds exceeding 50,000 yuan (US$7,292) to be filed. In this case, however, the suspects' main motivation was to demonstrate technical skills and attract online traffic, and their illicit gains were relatively modest.

The new judicial interpretation changes this, enabling criminal liability for online infringing content that meets specific viewership or distribution thresholds: distributing more than 500 infringing works, providing over 10,000 downloads, amassing more than 100,000 views, or operating a paid membership service with over 1,000 users all qualify for criminal investigation.

Shanghai police stated they will continue to prioritize crackdowns on emerging criminal activity in the cultural and creative industries, and ramp up law enforcement efforts to protect intellectual property rights in the sector.