‘Genshin Impact’ Voice Actors Still Striking Against HoYoverse Despite SAG-AFTRA Strike Ending

Although SAG-AFTRA recently reached a tentative deal with the games industry, Genshin Impact voice actors have revealed they are still on strike against HoYoverse. According to several actors in the gacha RPG, some cast members are still collectively refusing to go back to work.

‘Genshin Impact’ Voice Actor Strike Still On

If you’ve noticed several prominent characters in Genshin Impact being voiceless over the past year, you are not alone! Going back to October 2024, many cast members of the RPG have been on strike over AI and workplace protections. However, many players expected the HoYoverse situation to come to an end when SAG-AFTRA recently announced that they had signed a tentative deal with major gaming industry companies to suspend their strike. That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, according to several Genshin Impact cast members.

On BlueSky, the voice actor for Diluc, Sean Chiplock, announced that the voice actors’ strike on Genshin Impact is not over and is separate from SAG-AFTRA. “Just getting this out of the way so folks can share when people inevitably start asking: No, the SAG-AFTRA strike ending does NOT mean that the #Genshin cast strike is also over. Genshin is non-union, and SAG’s contracts have no say on it. The cast strike is an independent Collective Work Refusal.” Chiplock’s posts were retweeted by fellow Genshin Impact actor Kayli Mills, who voices Keqing.

Chiplock went on to clarify that individual actors in the gacha RPG are choosing to independently go on strike until HoYoverse gives them better protections. “Genshin cast members INDEPENDENTLY chose to join the effort to ask for better protections on the project, & it is up to them INDEPENDENTLY if they want to return without them. As a non-union project, Genshin does not get the SAG agreement benefits.”

HoYoverse Was Never Part of SAG-AFTRA Strikes

Although many Genshin Impact players initially believed the game was a part of the SAG-AFTRA strikes, the RPG actually never was. As Chiplock confirmed, the free-to-play game is non-union and therefore was never technically on strike. So, in essence, members of the cast refused to work on the game in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. But since the new voice actor deal with the games industry doesn’t actually impact Genshin Impact, some of the cast are still choosing to strike against HoYoverse.

Interestingly, not all Genshin Impact voice actors agree with the collective work refusal being proposed. The voice actor for Venti, Erika Harlacher-Stone, has responded to fans in the past about wanting to return to the Gacha RPG. “I’m trying to come back. SAG has been sending threatening letters to us. It’s been very complicated. I’m coming back soon. If it had been my choice, I would’ve been voicing Venti the whole time.”

So, it will be interesting to see if some Genshin Impact voice actors decide to return, despite fellow castmates continuing to strike against HoYoverse. After all, according to Sean Chiplock, the current Genshin Impact strike is an independent collective work refusal that is technically voluntary.