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 āreservedā the funding and will release āup to 50% of the fundsā before Yatagarasu AoC is released and the rest only after they have verified copies of paid invoices. Whatās more, they provide no option to discuss, stating we should ācontact us closer to the release date beginning of next yearā 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 isnāt just beyond ridiculous ā 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 weāve 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.
https://kotaku.com/paypal-shafts-indie-developer-withholds-donated-money-477592948
Here’s hoping things don’t need to get that serious here.
PayPal Refuse to Release Yatagarasu AoC Funding [indiegogo]
