A Japanese game developer successfully crowdfunded $340,000 for their new visual novel, but they only received half the money. The platform’s reason for the missing funds is surprisingly strange.
Last year, Skeleton Crew Studio successfully funded their visual novel, Shibuya Scramble Stories, on the Japanese crowdfunding site Ubgoe. Led by experienced director Jiro Ishii, the campaign raised an impressive 55 million yen – over ten times their initial target. However, the project didn’t go as smoothly as hoped after the funding was secured.
Shibuya Scramble Stories devs say crowdfunding platform CEO wired their money to the wrong person
Ishii and his lawyer, Takahiro Kasagi, recently explained to Denfaminicogamer what happened when Ubgoe failed to make a payment on September 1, 2025. The next day, Ishii contacted Ubgoe’s CEO, Kazuo Okada, who said the money was sent to the wrong recipient by mistake, making an immediate payment impossible.
So, Ishii managed to get Ubgoe to promise to pay everything back by September 16th, but we only actually got about 6 million yen by then. Okada said the problem was a messed-up transfer that hadn’t been fixed yet – basically, the money was floating around somewhere and hadn’t landed in our account. It’s super frustrating, like waiting for a crucial item in a game that just won’t deliver!
When Ishii’s lawyer requested evidence of the transaction, Okada consistently avoided providing it. Kasagi believed the story was completely made up, as a legitimate accidental transfer could easily be corrected by the bank.
Then it got worse. Ubgoe’s own terms place full responsibility for backer rewards on the project owner, regardless of whether the platform has actually paid out. Ishii said he never saw that coming. “I suppose I was acting under the assumption that people are inherently good,” he told Denfaminicogamer.
Skeleton Crew has assured fans that development is continuing, now with financial support from Tokyu Land Corporation, and promised rewards for backers will still be delivered as planned. Ishii emphasized his commitment to accounting for all funds, describing the missing money as valuable resources entrusted to their supporters.
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2026-04-03 17:48