Honkai: Star Railpublisher Cognosphere is suing a player for $150,000 for allegedly violating copyright laws. Cognosphere has worked with developer HoYoverse for years to release three successful gacha games, namelyHonkai: Star Rail,Genshin Impact, andZenless Zone Zero.
Gacha games are often the subject of many leaks, with people sharing datamined information about content ranging from alleged playable characters to maps and story details on various social media channels. A lot of times, these pieces of content are potentially early or scrapped builds of the game’s features. This is why companies like Cognosphere often go after alleged leakers who share information and early gameplay clips from any of its games. Previously,Cognosphere filed a copyright infringement case against Ubatcha, a prominent HoYoverse leaker, and the Discord server they run for publishing leaked details aboutGenshin Impact.
In its latest lawsuit, filed on June 12, 2025, in the United States District Court’s Central District of California, Cognosphere is suing a player known as Alfredo Lopez for $150,000. According to court documents shared byGame File, the company is filing a copyright infringement case against the player for allegedly streamingHonkai: Star Railgameplay featuring then-unreleased5-star character Castoricea month ahead of her launch in Version 3.2. Additionally, Cognosphere is also looking to pursue a copyright claim, which could see the player paying the $150,000 fee if he is found guilty.
Honkai: Star Rail Publisher Condemns Player’s Discord Stream
The lawsuit claims that Lopez’s Discord stream was viewed by over 12,000 members, but it didn’t reveal how the player managed to get a hold of the leaked material. In Cognosphere’s complaint, it condemned the act of sharing information aboutHonkai: Star Railand other HoYoverse gamesprior to their scheduled release because it could spoil the enjoyment of many fans. Likewise, the company emphasized that obtaining a game update unlawfully could harmHonkai: Star Railplayers' overall user experience.
It seems like Lopez might not be alone in this, as industry analyst Daniel Ahmad stated onTwitterthat Cognosphere has apparently initiated over 500 legal cases. This allegedly includes cases in China, which have led to leaked content being labelled as “a violation of trade secrets.” If this is true, then fans ofHonkai: Star Rail,Genshin Impact, andZenless Zone Zeromight see more crackdowns on leaks in the coming months or the next year, especially sinceHoYoverse plans to launch a new game,Honkai: Nexus Anima, in the near future.
