There is unrest in Linkon City. Players of Love and Deepspace, from Chinese publisher Infold Games, have been vocally upset about the erstwhile love interest Valko. But this current drama is revealing more cracks in the facade.
Hearts broke globally as Love and Deepspace publisher Infold Games cut Valko, a new love interest, from the game. Some hearts, at least. Others were already fractured when the publisher simply announced the guy. There's always been a bit of pushback when Love and Deepspace got a new man; the game was released with just three, Zayne, Xavier, and Rafayel. Sylus and Caleb were added later.
The people who love Valko really love him. Love and Deepspace's Reddit page is flooded with art, fan fiction, and video edits. Aftermath's gotten lots of emails about Valko, his fanbase, and their campaign to get him back. And the people who hate him really hate him. Infold Games reportedly had to position security guards and block off parts of the sidewalk in front of its Shanghai-based office.
Even the Chinese government disapproved of Valko. China's Ministry of Public Security posted a statement on its official website: It said that Love and Deepspace's advertising for Valko, in which he breaks into the main character's home, crossed a line both legally and morally, according to a translation of the statement. China's video game market is highly regulated, as the government must approve what goes to market in the country. As Kotaku reported in July, that gives the government an unusual amount of control over the industry and what gets published there.
Nearly 100,000 people have signed an online petition to get Valko back, started email campaigns, and flooded Love and Deepspace's mobile store pages with chants of Bring back Valko! (There are lots of reviews, too, that ask Infold Games to instead focus on the love interests it's been seemingly ignoring.) It doesn't look good for Valko, or any other potential sixth love interest. Infold Games said it won't be adding Valko or any other love interest to the game.
One message that spans a lot of the fanbase, on both sides, is that Infold Games isn't listening to its players. If it isn’t Valko, then it’s how expensive the game has become, and if it isn’t that, then it’s technical problems that players have been asking to fix for over a year. And that’s not to mention the growing tensions between Infold and its gay male players, who have been called out as not necessarily welcome to participate in the fandom. In a translated statement from Infold Games, the company said it itself: This isn't an all-gender game.
Aftermath has reached out to Infold Games for comment.
Love and Deepspace players together spent nearly $1 billion since its release, and are deeply attached to the game, both emotionally and financially. The nature of the game—nuturing a relationship in this science fiction story—creates a parasociality with the characters, the game, and the makers.
And that's seemingly what the game is designed to do: get players hooked on the game, and, as such, on spending money. Love and Deepspace is a free-to-play game, but it's also got a gacha system. You can play without spending, but it's more difficult to collect enough of the currencies to, perhaps, roll the dice on character memories and cards. Fear of missing out is inherent to these mechanics, and, as players discussed on Reddit, new players are "punished" for not being around at the start of the game. To get the old content and rewards (called reruns), a player must spend double, or even triple, the original price.
It's too early to say if the Valko controversy has impacted Love and Deepspace financially. The game made $49 million in May, which dropped to $38 million in June, according to Sensor Tower aggregated on Gacha Revenue. Alone, that certainly looks like the player rage in June impacted revenue, but those two numbers don't tell the whole truth. June's revenue is higher than that of April, and just slightly below that of May. Revenue has remained mostly stagnant in 2026, with that little spike in May. (Perhaps because there was a Sylus memory where you're a cat and Sylus is petting you.)
Love and Deepspace's last update was released in early July. This was the update that was intended for Valko, called Shattered Quiet, but without a new character, players found the new content bare. Infold Games said in its Valko apology that it will focus on "developing the stories and long-term companionship experiences of our five existing love interests." Both Caleb and Sylus (two love interests players believe have been ignored) will get main story updates in the fall, and Infold Games is giving the biggest rewards to the player for free. The company hasn't said much about the game on its social media pages, posting here or there about events and the 6.0 update.
Players likely won't be satisfied until they see action, not just hearing about it. In October 2025, players rallied to get Infold Games to adjust cutscenes and lighting that was making dark-skinned main characters nearly invisible. Love and Deepspace's cutscenes are often in first-person, but the camera moves back at times to put the character and boyfriend into view. Seeing yourself in the main character is a massive part of Love and Deepspace's fantasy, and not all players are able to experience it. Infold Games responded to a request for comment from IGN and said it has seen the conversations around dark-skinned characters.
We’ve seen the conversations and truly value everyone who has taken the time to share their experiences and thoughts,” A representative from Infold told IGN over email. “Every comment, whether it’s about visuals, storytelling, or representation, helps us better understand how our work resonates across different perspectives and cultures. Love and Deepspace is, at its heart, a shared world of emotion and imagination. We hope to keep building it hand in hand with our players, learning and improving together along the way.”
Crucially, there is no promise to fix the issue. Dark-skinned characters were nearly erased from cutscenes for years, and it's still not fixed. As one Reddit user wrote in a post from early July, many of Love and Deepspace's scenes are darkly lit, which means that dark-skinned players are constantly washed out. Many people paid for this content, and for a significant amount of them, it's broken. It shows a serious misunderstanding of what the players want.
Despite it all, Love and Deepspace players seemingly stay. It can be hard for some people to understand the investment in a game like Love and Deepspace, and easy for people to write off. But there aren't many games made specifically for women like this. Infold Games tapped into a market desperate for something for them. They got it, and they've held onto it, but the grip seems to be loosening, at least for some.
Nicole Carpenter
