As of July 24, 2023, a major Genshin Impact event in South Korea was canceled due to a bomb threat made on social media. The 2023 Genshin Impact Summer Festival, which began on July 20 at two locations in Seoul Olympic Park, was meant to celebrate the Genshin Impact 3.8 summer event and run for four days until July 23.
The event was canceled on the third day after a user with the Twitter handle PingPingMon69 posted a tweet claiming that a pipe bomb had been planted at the Genshin Impact event’s indoor venue at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, also known as the KSPO Dome. The tweet included alleged images of the explosive device and cited anti-Chinese sentiments as the reason for the threat.
In response to the bomb threat, local authorities took immediate action and evacuated approximately 200 attendees. After an extensive search of the venue, they found no traces of explosives, indicating that the threat was illegitimate. The South Korean police are actively investigating the person behind the alarming tweet.
Following the cancellation of the event and the bomb threat incident, the organizers are considering the possibility of continuing the event, but as of July 24, no official decision has been announced.
The cancellation of the Genshin Impact event adds to the game’s recent troubles. Earlier in July 2023, there were reports that Genshin Impact voice actors had not been paid for months. However, it was later revealed that the payment issue was the fault of Studio Formosa, one of the companies handling voiceovers for the game, and not HoYoverse, the developer of Genshin Impact. HoYoverse pledged to address the payment issues promptly after being informed about the situation.
This bomb threat incident is not the first controversy involving Genshin Impact’s talent. In February 2023, the game had to replace a voice actor for the character Tighnari due to sexual misconduct allegations.
Despite these controversies, Genshin Impact remains a popular RPG available on Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5, with a Switch port also in development.
