Love and Deepspace Fans Tearfully Hold 'Funeral' for Valko at Infold HQ After Company Suddenly Drops Character

Love and Deepspace fans are holding memorial services for Valko after Infold, the game’s developer, pulled the plug on the wolfy love interest mere days before his debut.

Chinese LADS players are showing up to Infold's Shanghai HQ in droves, bringing with them flowers, candles, and tears as they mourn the loss of a character they were excited to romance come July 9.

Videos of sobbing fans at the office building are taking social media by storm, but this isn’t the only way players are showing their disapproval of Infold’s choices — they’ve also signed a petition demanding the developer reverse their decision and bring Valko back.

"When I first arrived at the Diezhi building and saw that wall, I couldn't help but cry. A girl shared her chocolate with me, another girl was herself choked up as she comforted me and held my hand." pic.twitter.com/1Y66FfAnhV

— 𝒔𝒖𝒛𝒖 (@pinkcrispss) July 1, 2026

At the time of writing, the petition boasts over 78,000 verified signatures and over three thousand comments from players desperately pleading with Infold to release the game’s sixth love interest.

“This is devastating,” one fan wrote. “Removing Valko from the game is NOT an acceptable solution. I am deeply disappointed to see Infold choose to erase a long-awaited LOVED character.”

“Many players spent money believing the game would continue expanding its romantic routes. Canceling Valko feels like a bait-and-switch and a material change to the game after monetization,” another explained.

This CN player posted a photo of herself holding a bouquet in front of the Infold building. The flowers were meant for the as a gesture of appreciation and love for Valko. However, as far as I understand, they couldn’t be accepted due to safety regulations.

The card reads:… pic.twitter.com/nhWUYSe0SV

— Anna #BringValkoBack (@annavanarya) June 30, 2026

Thus far, Infold has not given a public response to the backlash surrounding this decision.

Valko was initially slated to launch in Love and Deepspace on July 9 as the game’s newest romanceable character, but on June 30, Infold made an announcement revealing they were not moving forward with him as previously planned.

“After reflecting on recent events, we recognize that we moved forward with the introduction of Valko before we were truly ready," the company said.

"In doing so, we let down the players who have supported us from the start, and we also fell short of delivering the experience that players anticipating Valko deserved."

For both hardcore fans and those new to Love and Deepspace, check out IGN's Love And Deepspace guides.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.

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Virtua Fighter Crossroads Producer Says the Game Was Inspired by HBO's Watchmen Series

Riichiro Yamada, producer of Ryu Ga Gotoku’s Virtua Fighter Crossroads, opened up about his surprising inspiration for reviving the highly-anticipated fighting game series after so many years.

Speaking with GamerBraves, Yamada revealed that his creative spark for the newest Virtua Fighter title was lit by none other than HBO’s Watchmen series, calling it his “biggest inspiration” for the game – less so because of the story itself, but more so because of how it managed to bring a 33-year-old comic back into the mainstream.

“Virtua Fighter, the series, has been very long. It has its own lore, it has its own settings that have been there, but [it] has never been used for decades and for 20 plus years,” he told the outlet.

“Watchmen was a very old American comics story which was revived as a drama 40 years-plus after,” he continued. “For me, I thought it was very similar to the situation with Virtua Fighter, and it told me a lot about how to modernize the old settings, the old story, and then revive it.”

From what we’ve seen thus far, Virtua Fighter Crossroads will boast an narrative-driven story mode helmed by a team of industry veterans. Yamada explained that RGG wanted to branch out from its usual storytelling methodology with this game, saying they wanted to expand Virtua Fighter’s existing lore.

“We wanted to do something different from RGG in terms of style or method of the story,” he said. “We wanted to tell the story more, and we wanted to have the player be more immersed into the game and feel the narrative.”

Those who are cutscene-averse need not worry, though; Yamada clarified that he wants fans to experience the story themselves through gameplay, rather than relying on cutscenes alone to tell the tale.

“A lot of people won’t be just satisfied with nice cuts in the game, and pretty scenes or pretty cinematics,” he said. “It’s way better if you can play through it and understand the story by yourself.”

He went on to confirm that Crossroads takes place “10 to 20 years” after the events of Virtua Fighter 5, with a focus on showing the “comeback” of the series’ classic characters after being “almost forgotten” in the game’s universe.

Virtua Fighter Crossroads is set to release in 2027, though no specific date has yet been established.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.

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ESA Claims Private Minecraft Servers Are 'Illegal' and 'Piracy' in Stop Killing Games Hearing

The ESA has made the head-scratching claim that private Minecraft servers are "illegal," arguing that they're considered a form of "piracy" in a recent hearing.

During a California State Senate hearing over the Protect Our Games Act (a Stop Killing Games bill that would force game publishers to ensure games remain playable if servers are shut down), Assemblyman Chris Ward was questioned by the committee about how feasible it would be to keep games running on private servers if official support concluded. Ward noted that both Minecraft and Call of Duty utilize community servers, meaning it's a solution that already exists in some cases.

However, ESA’s VP of State Government Affairs, Jennifer Gibbons, objected to his claim and stated that these are not officially sanctioned servers. In fact, according to Gibbons, they're illegal.

“They’re illegal,” Gibbons responded. “They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers.”

Gibbons was asked by a committee member if private servers are akin to a "black market" for video games, and Gibbons answered yes. The ESA executive went on to state that they even consider these servers as "piracy" and have lawsuits pending against private servers right now.

“Yes," said Gibbons. "In fact, we consider it piracy. We have lawsuits, two pending lawsuits, against private servers right now, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in their Notorious Markets Reports on counterfeiting and piracy has named some of these big private servers as a notorious market.”

To be clear, in the case of Minecraft, this isn't true. Minecraft has multiple pages on its website where it encourages players to set up their own servers or browse third party servers. These servers are also verified and approved by Minecraft's team to ensure they follow standards and guidelines.

"Each server offers its own brand of fun and uniqueness," reads an excerpt about community servers on Minecraft's website. "Find your favorite with our Server List Site, where all listed servers have been reviewed and verified as following our community standards and guidelines."

IGN sent the ESA a link to this page and noted that it was encouraged by the Minecraft team when requesting a comment. An ESA representative responded with the following:

"Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers. Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them. The provision in CA AB 1921 that proposed these servers as a legitimate alternative to keep games running raises concerns about a publisher's ability to enforce their IP rights. In addition, private servers operate with no oversight from the publisher and do not uphold the same trust and safety standards. This could create an unsafe environment for players and be counter to the industry's commitment to fostering safe and fun game play for all players."

PC Gamer also noted that the UTSR's Notorious Market Report referenced by Gibbons doesn't specifically single out random community servers so players can play with friends, but rather ones that allow users to bypass games that require subscription services, such as World of Warcraft. Those servers allow players to get around a key piece of the game, rather than serving as an extension of the exisiting experience.

Ultimately, the Protect Our Games Act did not receive the necessary amount of votes to move forward, but it was granted a reconsideration, so it still has another chance to make its case. A Stop Killing Games campaign volunteer took to Reddit to address the situation, noting that "every one of these claims was designed to scare a busy legislator who does not have time to fact-check a well-dressed lobbyist in real time.

"It worked just well enough this round," they continued. "It will not work when we are standing in the same room, with developers and players beside us, ready to answer every single claim as it happens. Here is what happens next. We are not stopping. Not even close. Next session, we come back with an in-person lobbying presence, the funding to do this properly, and a long list of organizations and developers signed on in support."

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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Why The Back-to-Back Street Fighter 6 Evo Champion, MenaRD, Switched Off His Main in the Finals

You certainly could make a case for MenaRD being the best Street Fighter 6 player in the world right now. His win at Sunday's Evolution Championship Series in Las Vegas brings him up to four total Evo wins, with two back-to-back wins at Evo in Las Vegas (2025-2026) and two back-to-back wins at Evo Japan (2024-2025). And while his Blanka looked dominant throughout the tournament, one of the more interesting stories that came out of the Street Fighter 6 top eight was the fact that in his most crucial matches, Mena opted against using the character that he's most well known for.

In Winners Semis, Mena started off by using M. Bison, going 2-2 with Shigematsu's Blanka. After swapping to Blanka for the mirror match in the deciding game, Mena won a hard fought game that ended up going to the final round, sending Shigematsu down to the losers bracket.

Shigematsu wouldn't be denied his runback however, as he ended up fighting his way through Dogura, Craime, and Kilzyou to reach Grand Finals for what we all assumed would be a Blanka vs Blanka mirror match, right from the start. But once again, Mena opted for the Bison, and played out the whole first set with the character. Shigematsu ended up resetting the bracket against Mena's Bison with a score of three games to one, and sure enough, after the reset Mena finally decided to bring out the Blanka. It was short work from there as Mena took next set 3-0, winning his fourth Evo Championship.

My Bison actually produced better results against the Blanka players that I practiced with.

But why did he decide to choose Bison in the first place? After the match, Mena responded to the question by saying, "Honestly, it was a matter of Shigematsu [being] a teammate with another top Blanka player from Japan called Takagi. So I took that into account and I had confidence in my Bison after practice. And my Bison actually produced better results against the Blanka players that I practiced with. But I also had the suspicion that his style was a little bit different. A little more aggressive, and had a lot of tricks."

After the close call in Winner's Semi's, Mena still felt like he could have won with Bison, and since he was on the winner's side of Grand Finals, he could risk losing a set, so he decided to try it again. But after Shigematsu took the first set off him, he realized that he had to switch to his bread and butter.

Mena credits his training in Japan as being very helpful in his improvement as a player. "I'm staying in Japan right now. I'm playing in the Street Fighter League. My teammates in the Zeta Division: Momochi, Higuchi, and Yamaguchi, they're all amazing players and I see them every day."

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

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'We're Done Paying for Executives' Failures' — Unionized Xbox Developers Hold Press Conference to Make Their Point as Microsoft Reportedly Readies Massive Layoffs

Unionized Xbox employees are pushing back against the company's looming layoffs and have outlined various demands.

Earlier today, the CWA (Communications Workers of America) held a press conference in which various unionized Xbox employees spoke out against Microsoft. The conference was held ahead of reported layoffs at Xbox, which insiders have stated will be a "bloodbath."

It's also a painful reminder of last year's layoffs at Microsoft, where 9,000 people lost their jobs across the entire company (not just Xbox) and resulted in multiple projects being cancelled, including the long-awaited reboot of Perfect Dark. The studio behind that game, The Initative, was also shuttered without having ever released a game.

The upcoming layoffs reportedly puts more studios, such as Double Fine and Ninja Theory, at risk of closure. South of Midnight developer Complusion Games is also reportedly at risk of shutting down, despite winning a Peabody Award earlier this year. New Xbox boss Asha Sharma celebrated the win on her socials, months before the studio's reported demise: "A well-deserved recognition for storytelling that truly matters!"

These developers are reportedly negotiating with Microsoft to find new owners or to go independent, but it remains to be seen what exactly will happen. Microsoft hasn't explicitly confirmed layoffs or studio closures to the public, but Sharma did state in a memo that the company will be performing a "reset" in order to better situate the company for the future. As a result, Xbox developers are fearful of their future.

During the CWA press conference, speakers stated that they were growing frustrated as Microsoft hadn't given all of the union reps time to bargain, with one CWA member stating that Microsoft had sat on a proposal for four months. One member did give credit to Microsoft after the World of Warcraft bargaining team at Blizzard saw "real gains" this past weekend.

The speakers also outlined what they want from Microsoft, including advance notice of layoffs, two years recall rights (the ability to be rehired if their position is reopened after layoffs), adequate severance, voluntary severance to avoid involuntary layoffs, and for Microsoft to transfer impacted staff to other studios or roles within the larger company. They're also hoping to cement protections for all workers, not just those who are unionized.

A Microsoft spokesperson told IGN that it is working with the CWA to find an appropriate agreement. "We respect the right of our team members to make their voices heard," said the spokesperson. "We have a long track record of good faith partnership with labor organizations, as demonstrated by the several finalized bargaining agreements our teams have reached with the CWA and our labor principles. We are continuing to negotiate in good faith with the CWA to reach agreements across XBOX."

During the press conference, speakers said they felt "expendable" and "dispensable."

"We refuse to be left in the dark as the company decides to restructure in a way that seriously affects us all," said ZeniMax Online Studios senior encounter designer Morgan Goin. "We're being treated as expendable, valued one week, and cut the next. Why would a game developer bother to put forward their best work under these conditions? Hard work and great games do not save you from layoffs under Microsoft. That's why we're coming together across Xbox to make our voices heard and to demand real accountability."

Goin claimed that Microsoft's own actions have created problems others are now paying for. Last week, Xbox announced yet another price hike on consoles, which has been sparked by a component crisis. Heavy investment into AI has led to massive price increases on RAM, which in turn has caused issues with producing affordable consoles, and Microsoft is a significant player in the AI space.

"Even as the company calls us too costly to keep, it is raising console prices on players again, citing a RAM shortage that Microsoft itself has exacerbated," Goin continued. "Layoff rumors are swirling, players are paying more and executives are calling it a reset."

Diablo senior environment artist Mahreen Fatima echoed this sentiment, pointing out that Microsoft's investment in AI proves that the tech giant has plenty of money to go around. "Leadership points to revenue and margins to justify cutting us and then [last] week, raised console prices on players for the third time since 2025," said Fatima. "They are not short on money. Look at the billions that they're using to invest in AI. They're just choosing not to protect us."

Blizzard senior editor Alison Veneto stated that the lack of protections and looming layoffs make it harder for people to do their jobs, creating issues for those trying to make great games.

"My coworkers just want to focus on making amazing games for players," said Veneto. "They do not want to spend every day worrying about whether another round of layoffs is coming. It drains away the energy we should be using to be creative. We want layoffs to be treated not as a quick fix to a quarterly balance sheet, but only as an absolute last resort. But if they're truly unavoidable, we are asking Microsoft for common sense protections around layoffs and a real effort to lessen the burden on affected employees, not only for the workers at the bargaining table, but for everyone who will be affected by Xbox layoffs. Our game developers deserve that."

It remains to be seen what will come of this, but Activision QA tester Andrew Snell and Fatima both made it clear that Microsoft's actions don't just impact workers, but also the players: "Workers and players are on the same side of this and we're done paying for executives' failures," said Snell.

"We, the developers, demand that you respect our labor and our games," added Fatima. "Together we've built a huge community and touched the lives of millions of gamers everywhere. Don't disrespect the developers. Don't disrespect the gamers."

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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'60fps Feels Like a Bridge Too far' — Tech Experts Cast Doubt on Those GTA 6 Quality and Performance Mode 'Leaks'

You might have seen reports doing the rounds that GTA 6 will come with a mode that lets you play it at 60 frames per second, based on retailer listings that have emerged online. Well, like so many things around Rockstar’s upcoming gaming behemoth, do not believe everything you read.

The tech experts at Digital Foundry have said there’s nothing they’ve seen of GTA 6 so far — including the recently released screenshots and brief video clips — that suggests a 60fps mode is possible on the current generation of consoles, although of course Rockstar has yet to make anything official.

“Unfortunately, the level of detail evident in the trailer, preorder screenshots and other, more recent footage seems extremely challenging to scale down in a way that allows for a 60fps mode,” DF’s Will Judd said.

That assessment is based on the established demands that games heavy on simulation have on the CPUs of the nearly six-year-old consoles (“the GTA 6 world looks another level of magnitude more challenging than the likes of Dragon's Dogma 2 or Baldur's Gate 3”). With GTA 6 this is an even tougher challenge because of the speed you can move around the open world. DF predicts 30fps for GTA 6 across the consoles, saying “60fps feels like a bridge too far.”

Even the more powerful PS5 Pro would struggle to output GTA 6 at 60fps, DF suggests, because it only offers “a fractional CPU performance bump” over base PS5 (the Pro is more more about improved Ray Tracing and support for PSSR upscaling than it is higher framerate). At best, DF suggests a 40fps mode could be possible on PS5 Pro, but again, that’s unconfirmed for now.

And it's worth noting Rockstar’s own release history suggests 60fps isn’t happening for GTA 6. GTA 4, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 all launched at 60fps on console, with the focus on fidelity at 30fps. The developer just doesn't tend to release games built around delivering 60fps.

A supposed quality and performance mode isn't the only questionable gta 6 rumor doing the rounds. Over the weekend, we reported on viral social media posts and articles that claimed a physical disc copy of GTA 6 was in the works, all of which turned out to be untrue. Why has Rockstar decided not to go with a disc version of GTA 6, risking angering core gamers in the process? There are a number of reasons, analysts told IGN this week, and they all make commercial sense. Meanwhile, some retailers are refusing to sell GTA 6 because the physical version lacks a disc.

Last week, IGN reported on the results of our own poll where we asked if you’re going to buy the $100 Ultimate Edition or the $80 Standard Edition. Somewhat surprisingly, over 70% of you intend to buy the more expensive version.

GTA 6 releases on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S on November 19, 2026.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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SNK Explains Why They Couldn’t Make Terry Bogard Explode While Fighting Kenshiro in City of the Wolves

SNK told us how they managed to pull off one of Kenshiro's most iconic moves without sacrificing their Teen ESRB rating.

Kenshiro is the latest guest character from an anime to make a splash in a mainline fighting game, punching his way into Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves this June.

We got the chance to sit down with producer Shinya Tamaki and director Hayato Konya ahead of his release at Evo 2026, who explained the difficulties they faced in translating Hoktuo No Ken’s comparatively gory fighting style into Fatal Fury’s decidedly less grisly hand-to-hand combat.

Part of this problem necessitated finding a balance between Kenshiro’s status as a Bruce Lee-inspired martial artist and the use of his special technique, the Hokuto Shinken, which sees him press opponents’ pressure points, causing them to explode seconds later. It’s arguably the most iconic thing about the show, and despite how bloody it is, it’s something the team wanted to make sure they included in the game.

To fix this, they covered the character model of Ken’s opponents in a dark shadow against a deep red backdrop, where they then explode — but no blood is directly shown, and everything is implied. That doesn’t stop it from being any less satisfying, though.

“As you know, Kenshiro’s main fighting style uses channeling points on his opponents, and typically after he uses them, they explode in three seconds,” Tamaki told us. “It's a very striking feature of the show. But he's also a fighter, and for a fighting game, specifically, we wanted him to showcase both features. We wanted him to be a fighter and be able to use the channeling points as an actual gimmick. But of course, we couldn’t have our characters exploding on screen, so we had to balance accordingly and make sure that it's not too gory, but also have these parts that fans are expecting and want to see properly come to life in the gameplay.”

"Of course, we couldn't have our characters exploding on screen, so we had to balance accordingly."

Kenshiro Was a Perfect Fit for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Kenshiro isn’t the wildest addition to City of the Wolves by far, following the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Salvatore Ganacci. Tamaki admitted that Kenshiro was an obvious choice for a DLC pick, given his popularity both in Japan and abroad. But apart from being a seriously cool guest character, slotting in a face from such a beloved anime was also a big marketing play from the folks at SNK to help appeal to a broader audience outside of the fighting game community.

“The First of the North Star series and the brand are quite popular in Japan,” he began. “Just looking at that, and the fact that Kenshiro himself was also previously a fighting game character in another fighting game and how the overall aesthetic kind of fits with Fatal Fury, where it's the Wolves fighting for their own cause… it fits. So we just thought, ‘Alright, this is a great fit for our character. Everything aligns correctly, so we should go forward with developing the character, as well.’”

“Fighting games are a niche genre, for sure,” Tamaki continued. “I think one of the biggest hurdles that we need to address is getting people that are not typically interested in the whole fighting game thing to actually turn around and say, ‘Hey, what's that? I want to try that out, I want to play that.’ We want to get new faces, new people to touch these games, and I think this is one of the most popular ways to do it.”

“Our main focus when choosing a new character to join the game is to give the current fans something fun to play with, but also something to get other people that previously would not be interested in the fighting game to give it a look and say, ‘Oh, actually this looks interesting, we want to try this.’ It might be bold, but really, this is our main priority, and we try to achieve that every time we release a new character.”

The Kenshiro Hype Doesn't Mean a New Fist of the North Star Game is Coming from SNK

This is the latest fighting game Kenshiro has starred in following Arc System Works’ 2005 Fist of the North Star. It’s been over 20 years since then, and the game still boasts a dedicated playerbase of fans who occasionally go viral on social media by sharing absurd clips of the wildly unbalanced but equally fun fighter. Of course, we had to ask the good folks at SNK if they had any interest in creating a new fighting game centered around the iconic eighties anime — and while Tamaki admitted that it's something the team would love to do, it’s not a project the company is looking to pursue.

“Of course, some of the developers at SNK would love the chance to make a First of the North Star fighting game,” he laughed. “Absolutely. But this version of Kenshiro is actually not based on the old anime TV series. This is [based on] the new reboot series. So we were able to have a good synergy with that. We have a new show coming out, and we’ll be in a good place to help support both [the game and the show]. The focus for this game is for the new character and his story, and we hope the fans enjoy that.”

"The Art of Fighting's Story Isn't Finished Yet"

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the most recent old-school SNK title to get a new game, following Samurai Shodown in 2019. That just leaves the Art of Fighting series without a new iteration, but fans should take heart – Tamaki cautiously confirmed that a new AoF project is, indeed, in the works, but remained cagey as to what exactly that project entails.

“Previously, SNK announced that we are working on something, though we can't go into the specifics of what the plan is,” he said. “But that news is out there, and yeah, we are happy to say that there is something that we are working on. The Art of Fighting’s story isn’t finished yet. Please stay tuned for more information.”

At Evo 2026, SNK revealed The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R, an updated version of The Art of Fighting 3, which is set to release on Steam with rollback netcode, re-balanced gameplay, and two new characters on an as-yet unreleased date.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.

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