Corina Boettger, the English voice actress for the character Paimon in Genshin Impact has said that she hasn’t been paid in months on “Big Project for a studio”.
Update – 14/07/23: This Article was updated with HoYoverse’s comment at the end.
While she does not explicitly say that this project is Genshin Impact, it is the most likely project that she is talking about the gacha game, as it is the biggest role that she has acted in.
The voice actress notes that the project has made “billions” which lines up with Genshin generating over 3 billion in revenue and as the constant companion of the silent player character, Paimon has the most spoken lines in the game.
Again… been working for MONTHS unpaid on a BIG project for a studio. I am owed THOUSANDS of dollars. I am struggling currently to pay rent because of this. This project has made BILLIONS. This project should be Union.
— Zulu & Lima (Corina, digi-destined) (@thebirdzulu) July 13, 2023
In further tweets, Boettger says that she had not received payments since from sessions that stretch back to December of 2022. She also says that she does know if this is the fault of Hoyoverse, the company that develops the game, or the voice-acting studio, she believes however that this would not happen if the project was Unionized.
“Just to be clear we don’t know if this is the fault of the studio or the game company,” says Boettger. “But regardless, if the game was union this wouldn’t happen”.
We should also note that she has been retweeting several tweets from other users directly addressing Genshin Impact and its publisher HoyoVerse, indirectly confirming that it is indeed her role as Paimon that she is referring to.
She isn’t the only voice actor who is due late payments for Genshin Impact roles. Brandon Winckler, who plays various NPC roles in Genshin including “Kazuha’s friend”, has also taken to Twitter to directly call out Genshin Impact for withholding payments when the game has been so successful.
After a fifth email with no response, This is regarding Genshin Impact. Inexcusable for us as actors to be waiting 4+ months for pay when you make $86 million per month. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon problem- (thread) https://t.co/BPBW3WibG9
— Brandon Winckler (@BWincklerVA) July 13, 2023
The voiceovers for the English version of Genshin Impact are done by a California-based company called Formosa Interactive. The company has previously faced controversy in the past regarding voice acting as they were one of eleven companies that were rallied against by The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) Union for the 2016-2017 Video Game Voice Actors Strike for due to a lack of fair payment.
Voice actor Kyle McCarley has further commented that Formosa Interactive is a SAG-AFTRA signatory. This means that they should be working with the Union to ensure better working conditions and on-time payment for the voice actors they hire.
As of this article, neither Formosa Interactive nor Hoyoverse have commented on the issue, though the former has been reached for comment.
Update – 14/07/23: HoYoverse has issued a comment on the matter, saying that their payments to the recording studio were on time. The statement is as follows: