China Hits Infinity Nikki Leaker with Massive Fine

Leaks are quite a divisive topic in all circles of entertainment, but in the Infinity Nikki community, any mention of leaks tends to trigger a knee-jerk reaction among many fans.

Many players say they wish Infold, the studio in charge of the game, would talk more about future updates, arguing in turn that if the developers were more transparent, there wouldn’t be a need for leaks, but it’s not that simple. Infinity Nikki’s creator, Papergames, is quite tight-lipped about upcoming banners or what the next patch is about in the dress-up gacha.

This discourse has reached its zenith over a major leak earlier this year. Papergames' legal department has issued a statement on major Chinese social media sites (translated on Reddit) detailing that a private individual, Zhao, must pay 1 million yuan (approximately $150,000 at the time of writing) in damages for leaking the gacha game’s future updates and upcoming content online, thereby disrupting the game's operational schedule. The lawsuit seeks compensation for the damages caused by Zhao.

Zhao was assigned to work on Infinity Nikki at Papergames through a partner company. The defendant signed and was aware of multiple non-disclosure agreements. While working for the company, Zhao repeatedly downloaded large volumes of unreleased Infinity Nikki content, which wasn’t related to their work, and then proceeded to share it with third parties via screenshots and texts.

That led to the mass distribution of the materials, leading to an infringement of trade secrets and damaging Papergames’ competitive advantage, per the lawsuit. The court ordered Zhao to cease the distribution of the taken materials immediately and pay 1 million yuan in damages.

What's at Stake for Infinity Nikki

Infinity Nikki is best described as a cozy dress-up game, but since its release in late 2024, it has nosedived into darker plot themes typically not associated with the genre, including war, refugees, mass murder, sacrifices in the name of fashion, and never-ending fishing with huge world maps and plenty of exploration at hand, at the cost of your sanity, as is the case with most gachas.

Infinity Nikki has a better pull rate in its gacha system than preceding games in the franchise such as Love Nikki and Shining Nikki. The game still relies heavily on cosmetics and outfits with different abilities that serve as gameplay aids, making it sometimes important to know when to pull for a limited banner or not. The outfits have been seen to have re-runs, but due to the time limits the FOMO is still alive and well.

The gacha angle is a significant factor in the leaks dynamic, because people want to plan out their budgets and know when to pull and when to resist for an outfit banner. Having this information come out early ends up having a tangible economic effect that goes beyond the usual spoiling of a three-paragraph post or YouTube trailer.

Infinity Nikki is best described as a cozy dress-up game, but since its release in late 2024, it has nosedived into darker plot themes typically not associated with the genre

This is also not the only legal battle that Papergames has been in recently. The company has sued rivals for using titles such as “Miracle Nikki”, “Shining Nikki” and “Infinity Nikki” as search keywords to promote their own games. The court ruled that the defendants had broken trademark rights and were engaging in unfair acts of competition.

After that, the companies countersued Papergames, but they ultimately withdrew their cases in September 2025, December 2025, and October 2026, respectively.

Infinity Nikki is available for free on Windows, macOS, PlayStation 5, Android, and iOS.

Infinity Nikki

Adventure Open-World Dress-Up RPG Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 80/100 Critics Rec: 82% Released December 5, 2024 ESRB T For Teen // Blood, Violence Developer(s) Papergames, Infold Games Publisher(s) Papergames, Infold Games, Fearless 6 Images

Engine Unreal Engine 5 Genre(s) Adventure, Open-World, Dress-Up, RPG