Love and Deepspace's Valko controversy tanks July revenue by 73%

Love and Deepspace just posted its worst financial month ever — July revenue collapsed to $10.3 million, down 73% from June's $38 million. The culprit is the Valko saga, a controversy that started with a character reveal and spiraled into a full-blown community split, a government intervention, and a convention no-show.

Valko was set to be the game's sixth love interest — a ruggedly handsome tech CEO who also leads a werewolf clan. The reveal immediately divided the Love and Deepspace fanbase. One half wanted him in the game badly enough to petition and boycott developer Papergames into adding him. The other half argued a new character would dilute developer attention from the existing cast and main story. Critics also pointed to Eastern beauty standards as a factor in Papergames pulling the plug on him so quickly. The situation escalated when the Chinese government stepped in, targeting Valko's promotional copy — specifically the line "What's wrong with letting a wolf into the house?" — as content that promotes home intrusions and sexual assault. A representative from the Ministry of Public Security News and Media called it "entertainment-driven, traffic-driven creative work" that "disregards public order and morality, crosses legal boundaries, and may ultimately endanger public safety." Papergames subsequently had characters and storylines removed, with re-certification now underway. The studio also pulled its booth from BiliBili World 2026, one of the biggest anime and gaming conventions in Asia. The government framed Love and Deepspace as a cautionary example, warning other studios that content which "deliberately blurs the lines of illegality, glorifies dangerous behavior, or undermines public safety" faces removal.

Love and Deepspace launched in 2024 as a 3D otome gacha game and quickly became one of the highest-grossing titles in its niche, consistently pulling $30–60 million per month according to Sensor Tower data. That kind of revenue put it in the same conversation as HoyoVerse's heavy hitters — Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero — though July's numbers make the gap look enormous. ZZZ, for context, jumped from 15th to 3rd place in global revenue rankings that same month, underscoring just how badly Love and Deepspace's momentum has stalled.

With the community fractured, government scrutiny ongoing, and monthly revenue at an all-time low, Papergames is in a genuinely difficult position. Whether re-certification restores the removed content — and whether that's even enough to win back players who've already walked — remains to be seen.