Genshin Impact sent out an in-game notice today advising players to link an email address and phone number to their account, seemingly as a response to a string of hacking incidents reported in the past few weeks.
"To ensure account security, we encourage all our Travelers to follow the below steps to link an email address or phone number to your MiHoYo account, if you have not done so already," the message reads. The included link opens MiHoYo's account homepage.
Security issues have troubled Genshin Impact since its release, with player phone numbers leaking in November due to a security exploit and email addresses reportedly leaking through gaps in the game's forums as recently as this month. Last week, one player shared a response from MiHoYo's customer support, in which one representative claims that hacked accounts cannot be recovered if a hacker spends real money on an account after stealing it.
Multiple Genshin Impact content creators have reported hacking attempts against their accounts in the past few weeks, and the game's official subreddit has seen countless threads from concerned or affected players. It got to the point that hacking-related Reddit posts were pushed out by mods due to the sheer quantity of them, so a new subreddit dedicated to account security breaches has been created. As The Gamer reports, some players posting on this subreddit have lost hundreds or thousands of dollars after having their accounts hacked, and with MiHoYo currently unable or unwilling to offer in-game compensation or refunds, many have been forced to consider charging back their purchases.
Given all of this, it's likely no coincidence that MiHoYo is now formally encouraging players to secure their accounts, but even adding phone numbers and email addresses won't totally prevent hacks, as some players have already learned. We've reached out to MiHoYo regarding the hacking incidents above as well as potential plans to add two-factor authentication to Genshin Impact's login process – a staple feature among gacha games, and a highly requested security boon for Genshin – but the studio has not responded to requests for comment.
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