Genshin Impact developer Hoyoverse is blaming “recording arrangements” for a lack of English voiceovers in its latest update. The new Genshin Impact update, which was released on Wednesday, adds a new character called Xilonen, alongside a new story and quests. But several characters are unvoiced, making the game quite quiet. Hoyoverse addressed this in its patch notes: “Due to recording arrangements, some content in Version 5.1 does not have English voice-overs. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
Voices are reportedly missing for Genshin Impact’s Kachina (Kristen McGuire), Kinich (John Patneaude), Aether (Zach Aguilar), and Ajaw (Abby Espiritu). Paimon (Corina Boettger) and new character Xilonen (Beth Curry) are two heavily involved voiced characters in the update. The missing voice lines impact the English update only — and it’s very noticeable from the start. There are several scenes with conversations between a bunch of different characters, like Paimon, Xilonen, Kachina, and Kinich. Xilonen and Paimon speak like normal among each other, but Kachina and Kinich only have the on-screen text accompaniment. The earlier parts of the story appear to be most impacted.
Polygon has reached out to Genshin Impact developer Hoyoverse, production company Formosa Interactive (which handles some voice acting for Genshin Impact), and SAG-AFTRA for more clarity. McGuire declined to comment, and we’ve not yet received a response from the other voice actors who play this update’s voiceless characters.
So are Genshin Impact’s missing voiceovers due to the SAG-AFTRA strike? There’s no confirmation of that at the moment. Per SAG-AFTRA’s strike rules, which were released in July when the strike began, video game performers can continue to work on live service games that have been in production since before Aug. 25, meaning Genshin Impact is fair game. However, SAG-AFTRA is currently targeting Formosa Interactive and its client Riot Games (League of Legends) after Formosa reportedly attempted to circumvent the strike with an upcoming project. The only ongoing, already-in-production Formosa Interactive game to be impacted — officially — is League of Legends. But voice actors can choose to withhold labor in solidarity, regardless of the project. It’s unclear, however, whether the strike is related at all to the lack of voices for several characters in Genshin Impact.
Typically, voice lines for updates like Genshin Impact’s most recent are recorded well in advance of launch. You wouldn’t normally see a strike’s impact so quickly.
The SAG-AFTRA strike targets 10 companies, some of which are developers or publishers, and others are production companies like Formosa Interactive. These companies are Activision Blizzard, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Blindlight, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, VoiceWorkes Productions, and WB Games. You’ll notice that Hoyoverse isn’t listed here: It isn’t directly negotiating with SAG-AFTRA, because a lot of its voiceover work is handled by Formosa Interactive. Genshin Impact, specifically, seems to use both union and non-union voice actors, which are signed to separate contracts between two different companies: Formosa Interactive and Formosa Ocean Post. Previously, several voice actors have had issues with Formosa as a whole: Boettger and Brandon Winckler (Nervous An) publicly accused the company of late payments. Even Hoyoverse made a statement urging Formosa to pay its Genshin Impact voice actors promptly.
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