How things are going so far
Why I'm not afraid they'll change him. A developer's perspective
Community record · June 30 – August 16, 2026
BringBackValko
A day by day record of what happened after Papergames cancelled Valko, with a source for every entry. Everything here links out so you can read the original and decide for yourself.
How this record works
- Every entry links to its source. Nothing is listed on memory alone.
- Rumours are marked as rumours.
- Arguments here are about tactics and verifiable facts, and main events of each day.
Revenue tracker
Compiled and maintained by @dahngrest (dahngrest.org) — not our data, all credit is hers.
A running estimate of Love and Deepspace's revenue, built from AppFigures and Qimai exports and cross-referenced against banners and company promises. Updated daily.
Does not include Korea, Japan, or the official Top Up Shop, so it's a partial picture, not a total. Read the notes tab before citing a figure from it.
Open the spreadsheetJune 29 statement
A sealed, formal statement (严正声明) addressing rumours about the game, including the claims about Valko. Posted the day before the cancellation letter. Both pages carry the company's official seal.
Posted from the official 恋与深空 account on Xiaohongshu, June 29, Shanghai
Longer pieces
Written during the campaign
What's a rumour and what's not
Rumours against verified facts, twelve days in
Why Infold had no choice, and why the boycott is the ladder out
On where the pressure actually came from
- Why splitting the servers isn't possible. The game ships to every region at the same hour from one codebase, and there were nine days
- Why a company this size still couldn't push back. What the government can take away, and how fast
- The sealed statement defending him, published twenty four hours before the cancellation
- Why the boycott produces the internal data a case for his return would need
- What we can and can't control from here
The timeline
June 30 to August 16, 2026
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- A positive article from Sina News
Note added August 8
This entry has been passed around as proof that Papergames is on trial. The article does not say that.
When I posted it I already disclosed that Sina was only hosting the piece, that the original publisher was listed as 点财网 (Diancai Wang, a finance news portal), and that the author carried the tag 商讯 (shangxun), which is what Chinese platforms put on paid or sponsored content rather than independent reporting.
What I found later is that the same text is sitting on more than one outlet, and they disagree about who wrote it. The copy I read credits Diancai Wang as its source, meaning someone else wrote it and they are reproducing it. The copy on ZOL is marked 原创 (yuanchuang), original, meaning ZOL says it wrote it. An article has one author. We cannot tell which label is wrong and we do not need to, because the point is that the same text is circulating across outlets with a different credit on each one. That is what a paid placement looks like: a list of outlets is booked, they all run the same piece, and each tags it however it likes. If this were reporting, one outlet would have done the work and the rest would be citing it. The headline also matches a piece on another site that appears in leaked admin screenshots as one fans paid to place.
On the court line, the article says a related party filed suit over certain public statements and that a court accepted the case for filing. Accepting a case for filing means the paperwork was received, not that anything was decided. The sentence opens with 据悉 (juxi), which is the phrase Chinese press uses when the information has no named source, and it closes by saying that as of publication the case had not gone to trial. There is no court named, no case number, no parties and no date.
The article also states that posting in blocks only works as a lead and cannot on its own establish organised content or a 水军 (shuijun), literally water army, meaning posters paid to flood a topic. It goes on to say the available public material is not enough to prove a paid water army or commercial competitors being involved.
ZOL copy: news.zol.com.cn/1218/12189917.html
- A video analysis presenting rumours as facts
- A campaign against cyberbullying, harassment, doxxing and the manipulation of minors online
- An attempt to trick players into spending on the game again
21
22
July 23 · nothing logged here
24
- Players report the game asking for facial verification far more often than before, blocking accounts that fail real name checks for under eighteens. The feature has existed since at least 2025, so whether it's being enforced harder now is not confirmed
- How the facial verification actually works
- A site opens collecting letters to Valko from 53 countries. Chinese players printed them, and they're the ones later left at a cafe by the office with flowers and a wolf plush via @pinkcrispss · lettersforvalko.com
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- A compilation of videos made visible again via @kkeithy4lads
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31
02
03
- Anti group tried to push global players to take a more aggressive approach in calling out PPG
They claimed this was our "only chance" to bring Valko back, creating a false sense of urgency. They urged the community to use hashtags and suggested using legal tools to accuse PPG of false advertising.
This led to the creation of the hashtag #PapergamesRuinsCNgaming.
The global community decided to push #NoValkoNoMoney instead. This hashtag had already been circulating in the early days of Valko's cancellation.
- Allegedly admins on Valko's Weibo management group stated that they are the ones contacting all the media
They commented that they had paid for the article on July 20.
05
- The ad started to receive positive comments for Valko
The comment section started to receive very positive comments, but at the same time, spam comments saying "Love this" filled the ad. The comments were disabled shortly after.
As of August 9 the ad no longer appears on Instagram.
- History of PPG's paid ads for Valko managed by Meta
06
- Same pattern for the comment section
Positive comments and spam comments saying "Love this" filled the ad. But users encouraged the spamming users to leave a more complete comment and stop spamming.
- The spamming comments were from real people, not bots
- The phrase "The whole world loves Valko" in Chinese started becoming a trend
07
08
- Special event to submit your own calligraphy work for Valko
This event refers to the hashtag #全世界都爱敖尹 and August 6, when the trend started.
- Antis start to prepare for Rafayel's Myth
09
- Extinción Cero thanks the LADS community for the help provided through donations
- People's Daily five year digital plan
The core idea: the city wants to be the base Chinese tech companies sell to the rest of the world from. To do that they're promising more data centres and cables, more computing power available, and clearer rules for moving data across the border. As examples of companies already doing this well, they name two game studios: miHoYo and Papergames.
- PPG releases new merch
- Artist sells a plushie in honour of Valko
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- Korea billboard at Hongdaeipgu station, exit 9 via @LuvDeepLOVE
13
PPG publish multiple times about the new myth.
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