Infinity Nikki players call out underhanded marketing strategy in new update

The latest Infinite Nikki The update brought some changes to the store icons and players are not happy with the new direction InFold seems to be taking the game. The update moved several store-related icons to the game's main screen and made them very prominent and difficult to ignore. The change was likely made to encourage more players to potentially purchase in-game merchandise and currency with real money, which is crucial for the cozy, free-to-play exploration title to stay afloat.

Many fans agree that adding the new icons to the main screen and making them gold and shiny is not the right way to do it, and the marketing strategy is being described as underhanded. A movement to remove the intrusive new icons from the store was started by Darklillies on Reddit, which encourages other fans to participate.

Infinity Nikki Players Unite to Protest Intrusive Store Icons

Other players are encouraged to join the protest

The Reddit post is a heartfelt letter to gamers who may be accustomed to less than ideal marketing tactics. Redditor calls out developers InFold for enticing gamers with beautiful graphics and extremely frequent updates, while developers have “slowly and silently, pulling the rug further and further back, hoping no one would notice.” But it's not working, as the players are certainly realizing.

Darklillies encourages players to respond now, while they still have a chance to make a difference in the direction the game takes. “I'm so tired of every place, company, website, trying to take my money,” they write, adding that people often accept this as part of games and life. But it doesn't have to be that way, and Darklillies encourages all fans of the title who agree to do something about it. Fans are being asked to submit bug reports to report the change as if it were a bug. By presenting the design choice as a flaw, the Redditor hopes that InFold will be forced to actually acknowledge and respond to protests, rather than regular complaints that are easier to ignore.

Our opinion: We hope Infinity Nikki finds a good middle ground to please both paying and non-paying customers

Infinity Nikki reached millions of people

I've been playing Infinite Nikki since release and I'm still constantly amazed that such an engaging, well-made, and overall just beautiful game can be free. I'm sure fans of the game realize that for a game like this to be free, it requires paying customers to fund it. But, as Darklillies notes, This doesn't mean InFold should sacrifice the fun of the game by adding blatant in-store advertisements.

Free games have been around for a long time and Companies certainly don't always get it right. Until recently, most free-to-play games, especially mobile titles, adopted the cluttered, in-your-face advertisements of item shops. Time limits and energy systems were some of the most common ways games made players pay.

But games like Genshin Impact have shown that it is possible to get players to pay real money without making them feel like they to need to. When games are good enough, players often choose to use their hard-earned money to help keep the game alive. Infinite Nikki It's an impressive game with a lot to offer the welcoming gaming community, and I hope it finds a good middle ground that suits both the company behind it and its customers, the gamers.

Source: Darklillies/Reddit