A recent interview with a YouTuber revealed that Paimon’s voice actor is now withholding services to Genshin Impact.
Any longtime Genshin Impact fan will tell you just how important the fairy-like character Paimon is to the game. Paimon is touted as Genshin Impact’s mascot character, and has had the most voice-lines compared to the rest of its expansive cast of characters. She acts as the Traveler’s voice, guide, companion, and as the de facto emergency food.
However, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, and the subsequent collective work refusal for HoYoverse games, has put Paimon’s English voice actor, Corina Boettger, in a difficult position. While many fans initially supported the strike, sentiment has shifted following Boettger’s statements on social media. Their comments about the strike, fellow cast members, and the Genshin community at large have sparked backlash, with some fans questioning the purpose of the strike and criticizing Boettger’s tone and handling of the situation.
As a result of these events, Boettger has come forward through a YouTube interview to confirm that they are now withholding services to Genshin Impact unless the game developer, HoYoverse, signs the SAG interim agreement.
The decision to withhold services is not a surprise to Genshin’s fans
The recent months have been quite a whirlwind of controversies for the English voice cast of Genshin Impact, and it all started when Kinich’s voice actor, John Patneaude, came forward to announce that they were being replaced after withholding services to the game for six months, which ultimately led to them being recast.
The recasting caused a wave of backlash against the then newly announced replacement, Jacob Takanashi. A number of Genshin Impact’s cast came forward to air their dissatisfaction with his joining, one of the most vocal being Corina Boettger.
However, many fans have grown critical of Boettger's statements during this time. Their handling of the situation, and the way they voiced their beliefs about the strike, left parts of the community feeling alienated. The community felt that Boettger was being antagonistic and skirted between disbelieving their statements and calling out Boettger for their alleged “gaslighting” of fans.
In the video interview, Boettger explained their decision as a move to support Patneude (whom they mistakenly refer to by the replacement’s name, Jacob), the SAG-AFTRA strike, and labor rights. They also divulged that they had not been paid on time, causing them to live paycheck to paycheck and go on foodstamps–a situation they emphasised could have been avoided if Genshin Impact was unionised.
Boettger acknowledges that this decision could lead to their being recasted, and seemed to not be bothered by this possibility, something that HoYoverse is known to do for major characters. Just recently, the developer had revealed that the main characters for Honkai: Star Rail, Caelus and Stelle, have been replaced. Both of their voice actors were also part of the collective work refusal.
Boettger not being paid on time cited as major reason for withholding work
Boettger also goes into detail about the payment issue in a post through their BlueSky account, stating that the developer had broken their contract “again & again from them not paying me on time on a consistent basis, not being paid within the 30 days as my contract states.”
It is important to note that this isn’t the first time Boettger came forward with payment issues. In 2023, Boettger came forward to claim that the previous voice studio, Formosa, had not paid them for their work for over half a year. HoYoverse issued a response through Sports Illustrated that affirmed that the issue itself lied with the voice studio and not the developer.
The Sports Illustrated article is no longer available for viewing, but the statement can still be found online, and in full reads:
"We truly regret to learn about the ongoing situation. Genshin Impact values and respects the work and effort of everyone involved, and we support our voice actors to claim their proper due. We have made payments to our recording studio on time, and we immediately urged the studio to pay our voice actors from our past payment. Meanwhile, we are also seeking alternative solutions. And we will keep you posted on further developments."
The alternative solution was having the English leg of Genshin Impact switching voice studios, from Formosa to Sound Cadence.
Sound Cadence and HoYoverse have yet to make a statement about Boettger’s allegations.
