Shibuya Scramble Stories Developer Pursues Legal Action Over Missing Crowdfunding Funds

Shibuya Scramble Stories has shifted from crowdfunding success story to payment dispute. PC Gamer, citing Automaton and Denfaminicogamer, reports that Skeleton Crew Studio is preparing legal action after a large share of the money raised for the project through Ubgoe never reached the developer. That makes this less about campaign momentum and more about whether a studio can actually collect funds after backers have already paid in.

According to the report, last year's campaign cleared its goal in under an hour and eventually raised 55 million yen, roughly $340,000. Skeleton Crew Studio says it has received only 27.75 million yen, or about half of the total. That gap is large enough to turn what looked like a clean funding win into a serious operational and legal problem.

Executive producer Jiro Ishii says Ubgoe was supposed to transfer the full amount by September 1, 2025. When that deadline passed, Ubgoe CEO Kazua Okada allegedly told him the money had been mistakenly wired to a different client. Ishii says a memorandum then set a September 16 deadline for full payment, but only a portion of the funds was transferred by that point. PC Gamer reports that Ishii and legal counsel Takahiro Kasagi were not shown convincing proof of the mistaken transfer or the steps taken to reverse it.

Why the dispute matters

The developer says the issue is not just late payment but a breakdown in how pledged funds were handled.

Kasagi argues that if the transfer error explanation is accurate, a bank reversal would normally be initiated quickly.

Ubgoe's terms reportedly leave fulfillment responsibility with Skeleton Crew Studio rather than the platform itself.

The immediate development outlook is better than the payment dispute suggests. PC Gamer says support from Toyku Land Corporation means the project itself is still expected to go forward. But the real question has changed from whether Shibuya Scramble Stories can be made to whether the studio can recover money that backers already believed was secured. That is a dangerous place for any indie team to be.

The broader lesson is that crowdfunding does not eliminate intermediary risk. A studio can do the hard part of winning community trust and still end up fighting over settlement, accountability, and legal responsibility after the campaign closes. Until the dispute is resolved, this will stand as a warning sign for developers who rely on third-party platforms to collect and release funding.