r/ValkoHQ • u/Brave-Pollution-914 • 8d ago
Discussion 💬 Valko relaunch
Will Valko even be back In the game I feel so hopeless like I can not even predict their next move will they relaunch him In the Anniversary or next year or even relaunch him as a Npc I can not guess huhu I miss him so much
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u/One-Series-9893 8d ago
If their revenue kept declining, eventually they'll have no choice, buuut it could take a while.
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u/SnooDoggos1812 ❄️🍎🐺 8d ago
This might sound weird but what gives me hope is that nothing is back to normal since his cancellation. Yeah they are pushing banners, but the comment section will never be normal again unless they bring back Valko. Also the official discord looks broken with all the channels locked bc of valko. If I was a new player joining I would be like wtf is happening in this game 😅. The lore in game so far in caleb's branch is vague.. we don't know anything on whats to come. Its very contained around Caleb only bc its his branch. Valko is most definitely in game but hes not playable which is still causing alot of bugs and lagging.
My point is the whole situation doesn't feel normal all over, or sustainable on the long term. The game isn't gonna pull new players if they keep Valko out so they have to say something at some point. Either double down on him gone for good and recycle his stuff, which isn't logical to me but they do stupid things all the time 🙄 or they actually bring him back maybe next year after reworking him and his lore.
Idk at this point it seems to me they wanna keep their options open which gives them the power to do what they want. So anything is possible.
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u/FetaFarm 3d ago
Ehhhh. I’m a new player and joined way after Valko cancellation. The comment section and discord were annoying so I joined other communities that were highly positive and inviting. Theres one that has like 120k members. My friends also started playing recently. The negativity online isn’t pushing away new players, it’s the same as like knowing that every fandom has /that/ kind of group.
The negativity isn’t in the game so it’s really really easy to dismiss.
3
u/SnooDoggos1812 ❄️🍎🐺 3d ago
Well I just hope u know how shitty infold is as a company. If u still choose to play thats up to u
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u/tabris929 7d ago
Common sense in global business practices would say yes, but InFold has a habit of completely missing the mark. I don't know if it's the nature of their executive leadership or just poor management, but how they've handled this is making a lot of players look at how other games handle regional differences with deep suspicion (especially seeing situations like Overwatch's recent exclusive skin backlash) [tweet].
They're in a hard spot of their own making. They might have a lot of legal hurdles to clear to ensure they can release Valko safely, but they also have to know that the longer they say nothing, the more of the audience leaves. They said they wanted a game that lasts a decade, but I don’t think they have the financial stability or the management quality to do that while cutting corners like this.
Anyone who deleted their account at the start of this just passed the deadline to reverse it anyway. FOMO doesn't work when even the active players don't feel like there's any social currency left to enjoy, especially when confronted with the reality of how much toxicity (like anti-Blackness and homophobia) reared its head in spaces like ladstwt.
Putting him in as a NPC would only work if they decide to go the Caleb route and transition him to full LI later, which they could've communicated back in July. Valko fans deserve better than getting him tacked on haphazardly for the Anniversary. Placing the spotlight back on just one LI right now risks making the more extreme fans of other LIs volatile—which is the last thing anyone needs. They don't have a year to fix this, and even if they put Valko back now, trust is going to take a long time to rebuild.
I don't say any of this to be negative. The situation is fucked and they have a mountain of work to do to make it right. It can be done, but their abysmal handling of the global community is their biggest hurdle right now. It's terribly lopsided to expect global to have infinite patience for CN-side drama while showing zero courtesy in return. You aren't wrong to feel exhausted by it.
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u/Fallen_Sin6 7d ago
It’s so difficult as we have no further information, other than using our own logical thinking. I think I get my hopes depleted because any ‘new’ information is always just the same bad news rumours ‘his data’s deleted’ and’ he’s being made into a NPC’, when really no one knows anything, only IF/PPG knows.
I honestly believe he will be back. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.
What we know;
- They haven’t doubled down
- Their revenue is at an all time low, with all they through at this multi banner (something they can’t keep doing each time)
- They are losing more and more followers on socials each day
- They have not stopped people posting about Valko on the official pages like Weibo, Rednote, Discord or Reddit
- More people are deleting their accounts.
- They will have no new marketing to entice new players if they don’t bring in more LI’s
- Valko is a global name outside of Love and Deepspace, and outside of the gaming world. As such, not relaunching him will stain them into the future and more importantly into the global industry in which they are massively looking to expand into.
- They were standing their group and defending Valko up to the very sudden/forced change.
Or maybe those are just what I know. 😅
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u/Cherrybomb678 8d ago
If we’re being realistic, infold has to go through legal process against the water armies who started all of this and that usually takes half a year, so if we’re being serious. Early dec to anniversary to his reinstatement. If we’re being serious look at data, the revenue has taken a big hit so much that they have been note. Also that. Not to mention, his assets were put into a promise like a ponytail so there holding back on that. Lastly infold does have a history of doing this with other characters but they always brought them back in some way. But the difference between them is valko got a lot more backlash and boycott.
8
u/Maximum-Mammoth4913 🐺🐾🌕 8d ago
the ponytail was put into a promise? I thought it wasn't exactly the same?
26
u/pink_nikki 8d ago
They didn't put the ponytail into a promise. It was datamined at the same time as the elf ears on the current promise, but it hasn't shown up anywhere in the time since then. The MC outfit for Raf's myth also included a ponytail, but it was different, as you said. None of his exclusive assets have been added to the game or given to other LIs.
6
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u/gamdjo 8d ago
I don't even know either...To me it seems like the devs want him back but whoever is making the big decisions is saying no rn. I'm holding out until the Anniversary. After that, I will drop the game.
What worries me if he comes back tho is how much they will change him ☹️ I want everything they originally planned for him...
5
u/AsleepArt9542 6d ago
The only thing giving me hopium rn is their revenue, if they refuse to bring Valko back, they essentially killed their game. The antis can say all they want, at the end of the day, we see the numbers.
They will need Valko back if the antis want an app to keep playing. I think they either haven’t noticed that fact or are too stupid to. It could be both actually, they’ve been known to be quite dim, some of the stuff they post and say online is hilarious.
With revenue dropping, either the company will shift focus to another game so LADS will receive less updates or the game will continue on until it dries up of resources since how is a game to operate if it doesn’t make enough money to pay the people making and maintaining it?
5
u/Prtywoman 8d ago
I look at it this way, Love&deepspace/PaperGames as a company, as a game, as an app, has always been - compared to other companies and other games and other apps - a company that knows it’s players and very rarely does things to spite them or make them feel like they are just not taken into consideration and the things that they want are not taken into consideration. So I have faith. I know a lot of people bash them but I trust them to make the right decision.
2
u/boiled-coast-victim 4d ago
Unless they have a new fresh game ready to launch in a couple months they have to. Look at the state of the game, many whales eliminated their accounts, many others are still b-cotting, and some like me just enter once or twice a week just to get some resources for later, it doesn't feel right to just play it like nothing happen, and to be honest I would log in more if I hadn't lost interest in it. (I'm even losing interest in IN)... But if they find the current numbers to be sufficient 🙆🏽♀️ good for them. I think we gotta wait until the legal processes are resolved. A 6 month period seems correct, not for us that we're suffering but for the way they release LI... The thing is, will they lose us (the remaining player) completely in that time? I can't bare to even think about a wedding banner with out him, that will be very painful.
2
u/One_Shoulder8404 3d ago
Let me tell you this.. the game lost its spark and now infold trying to move forward and pretend nothing happened.. The sales arent increasing and numbers are declining .. If anything many players feel betrayed and dont trust infold like before .. Even even Valko returned infold officially lost players trust unless they redeem themselves and earn their trust back
2
u/Ok-Ganache-8253 7d ago
Lin the Gacha Goblin did a breakdown of a possible timeline based on the worst case scenario. It went as far as june 2027. But I'm wondering if they run out of money until then. Cause they can keep releasing what they have already finished but at some point they will run out of new content. So they should just release valkooo
1
1
u/passmeacookie 1d ago
I'm not an expert or an insider or anything, just a player who knows something about mobile gaming and how companies in that area work. My theory is that we won't get him this year, and January will be an important crossroads.
Love and Deepspace's third anniversary of the global release is in January 2027, usually companies see these as chances to bring back dormant players and encourage spending with events. If that doesn't turn things around or bring back players or get players who are still there but not paying to start again, it's a true "oh shit" sign for Infold.
I wouldn't expect a Valko announcement for the anniversary, that's just asking for trouble from the people wanting to celebrate their LIs. The important marker will be the spending numbers in January. If they're bad but then it doesn't prompt an announcement in that financial quarter, I'll think even I'll have to stop huffing hopium.
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u/purequalitywater ⭐️🐦⬛🐺 8d ago
Honestly I'm not expecting it. I personally think hes gone gone. I cant imagine the Chinese government allowing a character that got reported the way he did. However. I would at least appreciate acknowledgement from infold. At least that.
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u/pink_nikki 8d ago
Path to Nowhere, a game developed by a PPG subsidiary, removed a character after launch because she was reported for being too risque and anti-China. Players launched a major boycott and she was brought back 6 months later after rectification to her design and some of her content.
The key difference is that PTN's devs doubled down several times while giving players freebies before finally giving in. LADS hasn't doubled down at all, despite demands from CDG to do exactly that. They've also continued to allow players to discuss and post about Valko on official channels like the Weibo Supertopic, the official reddit, and the discord server, when they could easily ban him.
-2
u/Morwen-The-Witch 5d ago
Girlies as much as we all fell for the wolf at the first sight, we must let him go (and the game if you’re very against their move to remove him). They stated they won’t add him and any new love interests further, enough time have passed to see they’re firm in their decision
I deleted the game and never opened since so I don’t know if they once again added the title under love interests that more coming soon (I remember they deleted this after his cancellation) - then that’s it
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u/crazispaghetti 8d ago
We know as little as you do.
Every time I tell myself I've given up, I find that I'm still keeping an eye on socials to see if maybe the universe has decided to be nice to me lol. Hopefully we'll get an answer eventually.