Idleon Developer Claims pay2win Update Is for Marketing

LavaFlame, the developer behind IdleOn, released a controversial update in which players would need to spend between $200 to $500 for a companion that gave unbelievable advantages. For roughly three weeks the developer remained silent as users critical of the update were banned. Today an update for the game was released in which the developer explained his logic in the following post:

A note to those wondering where I’ve been and are eager to get back to more content: as you hopefully understand, I felt it was best for me to stick to my main mission as a creator — working and delivering on actual content for people to enjoy. Put simply, what I’ve always cared about most is that A: my game is fun, and B: a whole lot of people play and enjoy it. For A, the game itself hasn’t changed, no new or old content restricted; my focus on gameplay being fun and complete regardless of companions will continue, because fair balance and ability to experience all content has always been what has kept the game alive and thriving for almost 3 whole years now. For B, the last update enables me to bring the game to even more people than just those who have already found it; you may not know this, but unless you were here since November 2020, you yourself are likely only here because of similar updates I’ve made in the past that allowed my marketing/sponsored vids to reach you. Fortunately for all of us, the truth is that the game is as fun as it was before, as evidenced by more people playing today than two weeks ago, and with continued hard work on my end and constant engagement with the true community who simply want to have fun playing and appreciate the dedication I’ve shown over the years, the game will only get better and better and community grow larger and stronger.

LavaFlame2 – 255 Bench PR (Discord)

The Missing Details

There’s a lot missing from this statement outside of better punctuation which in of itself is rather concerning. The logic seems to be that more people are now playing the game after the update, therefore the update was good. The revenue from the update will enable LavaFlame2 to market the game more and it seems to imply the controversy itself will help to market the game.

King Doot is now available within 200 pulls which puts it above $250 to acquire and will be tradable in the future. Outside of the new gem system, the game is inundated with users exploiting and an entire forum dedicated to pulling the game apart and making everything in it free, including the new companions.

Outrage continues on Steam and Reddit, but posts are being quickly deleted as they pop up as the moderators seem to target anything critical of the latest updates. The developer has a history of reacting oddly to feedback. LavaFlame had previously banned an entire guild over miscommunication and has been known to lash out against anyone who complains as someone who dislikes his success as a developer. Unverified mod logs have shown years of condescending behavior towards the IdleOn community.

The reviews on Steam continue to move negatively as the game is being review bombed still due to the update, which now seems to be permanent and the game will continue on as the community has met its biggest match: revenue.