Game studio says publisher exploited them to get a ‘diversity fund,’ and kept the money

New adventure title Unbound SpaceThe delay was indefinite after Mojiken Studio and Toge Productions allege that PQube Games profited from the studio. They posted a joint statement to the game’s official Twitter accountThe following is a partial translation of.

We discovered earlier this year that PQube Games was a UK-based publisher we had signed to publish the console publishing. Unbound: A Place for the UnboundWe felt manipulated and exploited by certain people in the western region. Therefore, we had to end our agreement.

PQube Games leveraged our Indonesian heritage and position to get a diversity funding from a well-known console company at the height of COVID-19’s pandemic. This diversity fund was intended to assist underrepresented developers during times of the pandemic. PQube Games withheld all information concerning the grant in order to leverage it for commercial gains.

Mojiken Studio, Toge Productions, and Mojiken Studio claim that PQube Games covered up the details about the grant. They added the guarantee as a recoupable minimum and used it to get a higher revenue share. The statement says the studio only found out about this in March 2022, and as such, “we clearly cannot trust PQube Games nor continue to work together.”

PQube has responded with a statement denying the allegations, and stating that it has fulfilled its role as a publisher despite a history of “delays and difficulties” and an attempt by Toge Productions to “unilaterally enforce unreasonable revised terms to our agreement.”

Toge Productions was supported throughout product development. These funds have included significant funding beyond grant funding for development, porting, and marketing. Toge Productions have sought for some time to unilaterally enforce unreasonable revised terms to our agreement and it is disappointing that, as a result of not achieving that and despite PQube’s significant efforts to accommodate this, they have sought to deal with the matter in this way. We will reply through the appropriate channels.

Unbound Space This is a game about two people, a boy (and a girl) who deal with anxiety, depression and other supernatural powers. It takes place in rural Indonesia during the 90s. Raya and Atma, high school sweethearts go on an adventure through stunning pixel-art scenes.

The game had been originally planned to be released on Steam and Switch as well as Xbox One, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It’s unclear when, or even if, the game will see a release now that the publishers and developers are entering into this conflict.