I'm boycotting Love and Deepspace for killing my virtual boyfriend, a…

It's been 37 days as of writing. 37 days of tears, yearning, and an international campaign from Love and Deepspace players begging developer Infold to restore peace and release Valko, who was supposed to be the romantic RPG's sixth love interest. His launch was canceled on June 30, and Infold decided to never release a new boyfriend again. Over 251,000 Love and Deepspace players have been ignored while praying for Infold to reverse this ruling, so I've joined them in deleting the game. capturengo.com

Infold buried Valko due to concerns, primarily from Love and Deepspace's Chinese fanbase, that the chiseled werewolf boy was a sex pest due to his tendency to swoop in through bedroom windows, or a spy for the Imperial Japanese Army, and other conspiracy theories I never subscribed to. To me, Valko was simply exciting – decidedly not a threat to my womanhood, which is the fear at the center of nearly every Love and Deepspace controversy. Many Love and Deepspace players are, understandably, protective about the fact that the game featuring sparkly dresses, dates with a benevolent mafia boss, and a period tracker is unrepentantly designed for and by women.

But I've been devotedly playing Love and Deepspace for nearly two years – it launched at the start of 2024 – and tech CEO wolfman Valko never made me worry. He just inspired me to consider Team Jacob after all this time. But Infold quickly crumpled under pressure from a group of Valko-negative Chinese fans, who poured blood and left cakes of cow shit at its Shanghai office while demanding more attention for Love and Deepspace's existing companions.

The Chinese government ultimately deemed Valko morally appropriate after initially investigating the character for his breaking-and-entering habit shown in promotional material, but Infold hasn't mentioned Valko once since condemning him to a farm upstate. Earlier this week, I received an email from someone identifying themselves as "A supporter of the international #BringValkoBack campaign," who shared the community's petition with 251,000 signatures, and a Change.org plea with currently nearly 100,000 signatures.

They told me, "Supporters have also organized a coordinated month-long spending boycott and continued contacting Infold. Campaign participants say repeated requests for a substantive response have gone unanswered." GamesRadar+ likewise reached out to Infold multiple times for comment and did not hear back.

Cemetery Gates

"The room was a graveyard of shadows, the only light a pale sliver of moon that cut across the floor like a blade. Valko lay perfectly still beside you," says one harrowing piece of fanfiction imagining Valko's anguish on the despondent r/loveanddepression subreddit. "He knew you would hurt you if he left and even the very thought of it made his wolf howl."

"I feel like a widow," says another post on the sub.

"They don't care about us. They don't care about the boys," decides a writer of one of the subreddit's many "goodbye" posts, who's also frustrated with Times Square's recent rejection of another protest billboard in Manhattan, citing new restrictions on Love and Deepspace content.

"Please... bring me back my peace. Let me go back home with them. I miss them. I miss their voice, I miss their warmth, I miss their presence," adds an especially tormented Love and Deepspace protester.

Estimated revenue data site Gacha Revenue approximates Love and Deepspace's earnings have plummeted $28 million since June, and its downloads are down by 100,000. People are grieving, and they want Infold to grieve with them. Personally, I deleted my Love and Deepspace app this month – though it hurt to recall all the precious hours I spent in the game's character creator, perfecting my main character's nose for ideal making out with my stepbrother Caleb. To me, the War on Valko has been about more than a handsome man with seemingly two pairs of ears (the wolf ones and the human ones).

Between Love and Deepspace and its dress-up RPG Infinity Nikki, Infold has earned itself the reputation of being the lone developer that prioritizes its female player base. But this whole Valko saga has made me realize they really don't get it. Women aren't a fanged monolith – we're as prone to ideological disagreement, clashing interests, and different thresholds for paranormal romance as any other demographic. Rather than submit to the harassment, the stalking and cow poop, Infold should have held its ground and remembered that what some women want is not what all women want.

Ultimately, I deleted Love and Deepspace because I was exhausted with Infold for conflating womanhood with being spoiled. I was frustrated with other players for making the developers feel like they had no other choice but to give in. Womanhood is nuanced, and I once believed Love and Deepspace reflected that in its sometimes provocative, sometimes sweet gameplay. But everything's changed now that Valko's dead, and Infold decided to react to women with fear rather than progress.

Facing Chinese censorship, sci-fi RPG shows 50 million users its most depraved content through stick figure drawings.

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss seems to be preparing itself for an extended crimson universe after the open-world everything game's irrefutable success – it made $200 million in only two weeks, so why shouldn't the developer want to replicate that achievement with a Crimson Desert sequel, or four?

I'm sure this idea is especially tantalizing to Pearl Abyss now that Crimson Desert, which only launched in March, is already seeing its sales slow down according to a new Q2 2026 financial report. Pearl Abyss describes a weak Q2 "as the initial launch impact of Crimson Desert softened," but it seems interested in getting sales churning again by birthing a whole Crimson Desert galaxy. It says it's "open to various possibilities – including add-on content, platform expansion, and sequel titles."

Pearl Abyss is even pondering a multiplayer mode for the currently MMO-lite single-player game, given its "dynamic action combat and expansive open-world structure."

"There is significant potential for expansion into multiplayer modes," declares the developer, though it admits "integrating multiplayer functionality is far more complex than simply adding a new game mode; it represents a major technical initiative that requires comprehensive evaluation of server architecture, game balance, cross-platform stability, and live service operation models."

All of that is for future Pearl Abyss to worry about "Our immediate development priority is centered on Crimson Desert DLCs and our next pipelines," Pearl Abyss explains. It doesn't elaborate further on the possibility of a Crimson Desert sequel, or explain what other "add-on content" it's considering, but Pearl Abyss does, at least, share a couple of hazy details about the upcoming DLC it had confirmed earlier this summer.

While the developer reiterates that this DLC is under construction, it is nonetheless "scheduled for release this year while we refine its content direction and overall quality." We'll learn more about the DLC – including its price, exact launch date, and what the hell it actually includes – in Q3.

Though, Pearl Abyss is already thinking way beyond that. The developer emphasizes "Crimson Desert is not a one-off title." Instead, the developer sees main character Kliff's adventure through sand dunes and imposing monsters as only the humble start to "a core flagship IP of our company designed for longterm growth and expansion."

"Regarding the broader Crimson Desert franchise," Pearl Abyss adds, "we will evaluate future development opportunities in due course as we service the main game and its DLCs."

The developer wants to keep refining Crimson Desert, having already gladly issued a mountain of free updates and improvements to core gameplay in the few months since the fantasy game launched. And after reading Pearl Abyss' most recent financial report, I can understand why. When you think you have a cash cow, you want to treat it well.

Crimson Desert finally fixes one of its most annoying bugs after weeks of complaints.