The small team behind indie fighting game Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm have a problem. Despite raising nearly $120,000 on crowdsourcing site Indiegogo - twice what they asked for - they can't get their hands on over half the cash.
Online shopping intermediaries Paypal have emailed the team and told them:
The email from PayPal advises us that they have ‘reserved’ the funding and will release ‘up to 50% of the funds’ before Yatagarasu AoC is released and the rest only after they have verified copies of paid invoices. What’s more, they provide no option to discuss, stating we should ‘contact us closer to the release date beginning of next year’ to arrange release of the funds.
We appreciate irony as much as the next person, but PayPal refusing to provide funds legitimately raised to complete a game until after the game is released isn’t just beyond ridiculous – it potentially derails the game development. To add insult to injury, not only do Nyu Media and the Yatagarasu developer team have rock solid track records, but we’ve already provided PayPal with documents providing the bona fides of Nyu Media, the developer, and the campaign.
That's...quite the pickle. It's not the first time this has happened to a game in Indiegogo; Skullgirls ran into similar problems, and it was only when the developers lodged complaints with people like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Paypal released the money.
Here's hoping things don't need to get that serious here.
PayPal Refuse to Release Yatagarasu AoC Funding [indiegogo]