Mojiken, the developer of A Space For The Unbound, and Toge Productions, the PC publisher, have both accused console publisher PQube of misappropriating diversity funds. This has resulted in an indefinite A Space For The Unbound delay for both the PC and console versions, with Mojiken and Toge Productions announcing this action as a result of their discovery.
Why is there A Space For The Unbound delay?
Basically, Mojiken and Toge Productions hail from Indonesia. PQube apparently used this fact to "obtain a diversity fund from a well known console platform". The grant is intended to be used for underrepresented developers, and while PQube obtained the grant, they've been accused of not giving the funds to the developers as intended. Instead, they apparently "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 and Toge Productions state that they uncovered this back in March 2022.
This has resulted in Mojiken and Toge Productions terminating their contract with PQube. As a result of this, PQube is apparently refusing to give publishing control on console platforms back to Mojiken and Toge Productions.
It's important to note that while Mojiken and Toge Productions are currently embroiled in what could (and probably has become) a nasty disagreement with PQube, they've asked sympathetic people to not "do negative or harmful actions such as review bombing" of PQube-affiliated titles, stating that this has nothing to do with A Space For The Unbound and would only affect the developers who created the games.
What is PQube's response to these allegations?
As for PQube's reaction to Mojiken and Toge Productions' accusations, TechRaptor has received a response from PQube. Here's that response, which is almost certainly a canned statement since we received it just moments after our request for comment, in full.
Our official statement:
“We have honoured all obligations of our publishing agreement and have supported Toge Productions at every stage of product development throughout their delays and difficulties. This support has included offering significant further funding, over and above grant funding, to support 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 respond through the appropriate channels".
Interestingly, PQube doesn't strictly deny the accusations, and they also don't specify what the "unreasonable revised terms" to the agreement were. Since this was never mentioned in the Toge Productions and Mojiken Studio announcement, it's anyone's guess to how this whole thing will eventually shake out. It doesn't look too good for PQube, though, that's for sure.
Overall, it's been a rough year for Toge Productions. Mohammad Fahmi, the developer of Coffee Talk and also the PR guy/marketer for the company, sadly died earlier this year from an asthma attack. You'd think that eventually Toge Productions would eventually catch a break, but so far they've had to roll with the punches. Here's hoping some good news comes their way soon.
If you'd like to check out this slice-of-life adventure game set in late 90s rural Indonesia, the demo is currently available on Steam.
For more information on A Space For The Unbound and the whole controversy surrounding it, stay tuned to TechRaptor.
