Chinese media reported that on April 25, a person armed with a knife was arrested in Shanghai, in the vicinity of the headquarters of miHoYo, developers of Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact.

The suspect attacked miHoYo following the bunny girl controversy. Thankfully, no one was hurt. (Thanks, Inside Games, Automaton).

Since the reveal of the bunny girl video and events exclusive to the Global version of Honkai Impact 3rd, part of the Chinese fandom has been viciously criticizing miHoYo. Death threats aimed at the developers were even posted on Chinese social media.

Certain fans called the event "blasphemy towards the characters". Others were angry the event was not released in the Chinese version. A group of fans also organized a protest in front of miHoYo's headquarters this April.

On April 22, miHoYo ended up apologizing, and canceled the Honkai bunny girl events. Which in turn triggered anger from Global version players, who criticized miHoYo for prioritizing the Chinese player base.

Genshin Impact developer miHoYo attacked - Details from Chinese media

According to Chinese media reports, the suspect explained to the police they planned to attack miHoYo's co-founders, Liu Wei and Cai Haoyu, and later take their own life as well.

Moreover, it was reported that the suspect was dissatisfied with the content of the Global version of Honkai Impact 3rd. The suspect considered the Bunny Girl events as an insult to themselves and their favorite character. This was also confirmed by Japanese fans who re-translated the reports.

Censorship in China, miHoYo's response

It's also important to note that the Chinese versions of mobile games are regularly censored compared to Global or Japanese versions. Character artwork in Azur Lane, for example, is often slightly altered in the Chinese server compared to the Global and Japanese servers.

Moreover, since early April, the CCP has highly increased censorship pressure on Chinese developed games. The Chinese versions of several popular games such as Azur lane, Girls' Frontline, and Arknights, were hit most notably.

According to Japanese outlet Automaton, in the Chinese version of its April 22 apology, miHoYo stated that the Bunny event was also planned for the Chinese server, but with a different timing. However, seeing the censorship we explained above, this seems unlikely to happen.

Right now, miHoYo is in a tight spot. Despite the cancellation of the Global event, the anger from the Chinese fandom has not subsided. And now, Global version players are angry as well for loosing their event. We'll be keeping an eye out for miHoYo's response in the next few days.