A Space for the Unbound delayed indefinitely as dev accuses PQube of “predatory practices”
Mojiken Studio and Toge Productions, the primary developers of A Space for the Unbound, have announced that the game has been delayed indefinitely in light of accusations against PQube.
The issue comes down to PQube obtaining a diversity fund. While it was intended for developers, the company is accused of “intentionally withheld information about the grant and used it as a leverage for their own commercial gain.” It was further explained that PQube “hid the facts about the grant’s award and added it as a recoupable minimum guarantee and then used it to negotiate the increase of their revenue share.”
Mojiken Studio and Toge Productions say they feel “exploited”, and decided to terminate its agreement with PQube. However, “is still refusing to hand over publishing control on console platforms back to us.”
The full statement reads:
We are sad to announce that will will be delaying the release of A Space for the Unbound until further notice.
Earlier this year we discovered that PQube Games, a UK-based publisher that we signed for the console publishing of A Space for the Unbound for western regions had done certain things which have left us feeling manipulated and exploited, and so we have had to terminate our agreement with them.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2020, PQube Games used our position and heritage as developers from Indonesia to obtain a diversity fund from a well known console platform. The diversity fund was a grant fund intended to help underrepresented game developers, especially during the pandemic. However, instead of giving those funds to the developers as the grant was intended, PQube Games intentionally withheld information about the grant and used it as a leverage for their own commercial gain. Rather than paying the grant money to us, PQube Games hid the facts about the grant’s award and added it as a recoupable minimum guarantee and then used it to negotiate the increase of their revenue share. We have only uncovered the true amount of these funds and their intended purposes in March 2022.
We are absolutely heartbroken that a party we worked with would do this and a project we have worked on for 7 years has been taken advantage of in such a way. Since the uncovering of the issue, we clearly cannot trust PQube Games nor continue to work together for the release of A Space for the Unbound as PQube Games has fallen considerably short not only of reasonable decency, but also of the obligations to use due to these predatory practices.
We have to make a stand against exploitive publishers and speak up about this to stop things like this from happening again in the future. Thus, we are also announcing that we have terminated our contract with PQube Games.
As of this moment, PQube Games is still refusing to hand over publishing control on console platforms back to us. It is with a heavy heart that we must hold back the release of A Space for the Unbound so that we can make new arrangements and ensure that it is published as intended in a way that is consistent with our and our community’s values.
