It's been a mobile-only game for decades. Then a little more than a week ago Infinity Nikki released its 1.5 update (which introduced multiplayer and customization options) and launched the game on Steam.

But it "didn't go over as planned," [1]writes the worker-owned gaming site Aftermath , citing some very negative reactions [2]on Reddit . (Some players say that in response the game's publisher is now even censoring the word "boycott" on its official forums and community spaces...)

> Infinity Nikki players were immediately incensed by a bevy of bugs and general game instability, and made even more angry by several baffling changes to both the story and its monetization structure... Players globally are vowing to stay off the game until Infold Games addresses their concerns, including at least one Infinity Nikki creator who is part of the game's partner program... [T]he Chinese Infinity Nikki community — as well as others — has been flooding Steam with negative reviews of the game... [T]he complaints are also impacting Infinity Nikki 's review score on the Google Play Store... The [3]company said it's working to fix the patch's performance issues, which have caused game-breaking bugs for some players....

>

> [T]he Infinity Nikki team also gave players some free currency, but there's been problems there, too: Players say Infold had a bug in this distribution, which awarded players too much free currency. Instead of letting players keep that — it was Infold's mistake, after all — they deducted the currency, some of which players had already spent, putting them in the negative. But the community is looking for more from the studio; it wants an acknowledgement of the "dumpster fire" of a situation, as one Infinity Nikki player told Aftermath, but also wants some of the biggest problems reversed... Beyond the problematic monetization strategy, players Aftermath spoke with said they're also pissed off at a major change to the start of the game... Infold Games removed the game's original start with the update; the new intro drops players into Infinity Nikki with little context and a new, unexplained character who is supposed to be a guide as Nikki is dropped into intergalactic limbo.

While the spend-to-upgrade-your-character model has always been inherently predatory, as one player put it, the new update pushed the system "much too far for a lot of players," according to the article — "something made more egregious by the numerous bugs and strange gameplay changes." The article now describes some players as "upset that the trust they've given Infold Games thus far has been broken."

"Infold Games has not responded to a request for comment."



[1] https://aftermath.site/infinity-nikki-bubble-season-1-5-update

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/InfinityNikki/comments/1khdxdu/ethics_boycotts_gacha_and_infinity_nikki/

[3] https://x.com/InfinityNikkiEN/status/1917238176168677669