Director of Penny Blood, Shadow Hearts’s spiritual successor, files lawsuit over unpaid funding from Kickstarter campaign 

Matsuzo Machida has announced that he filed a lawsuit in the Osaka District court against game publisher Dangen Entertainment and its former CEO Ben Judd over unpaid production costs for Penny Blood. 

According to the announcement made by Machida’s Studio Wildrose on November 22, the lawsuit was filed back in May this year. No details are given about what led to the lawsuit, but it appears to be related to the Double Kickstarter campaign held for the development of the two RPGs Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia. 

For context, Studio Wildrose and Yukikaze, the developers of Penny Blood, ran a crowdfunding campaign together with Wild Bunch Production, the developers of Armed Fantasia, through a project called Double Kickstarter. The campaign garnered significant support from fans, raising about 380 million yen in funding. Since then, there have been regular progress reports about the development of both games. 

However, in his latest announcement, Machida has named Ben Judd as the producer of the Double Kickstarter campaign and Dangen Entertainment as part of the campaign team, filing a lawsuit against them for unpaid production funds. Based on these circumstances, it seems that the parties running the campaign withheld funds meant for Penny Blood’s development. 

Speaking of Ben Judd, he is the former CEO of Dangen Entertainment. In 2019, he was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, while Dangen itself was embroiled in disputes over overdue payments to developers. The company initially refuted the allegations, but Judd eventually partially admitted to them and stepped down from his position at Dangen. In the aftermath, the publisher outlined a plan to revise its management policy (GamesIndustry.biz), and Judd hinted that he would not only resign, but distance himself from his endeavors in the game industry (PCGamesInsider). 

However, based on Machida’s lawsuit announcement, it seems Judd is still active in the industry, and that he was involved in running the Kickstarter campaign for Penny Blood together with Dangen, despite supposedly stepping away from the company.  

Two days prior to making the announcement public, Penny Blood’s director revealed that Wildrose was struggling in a post on his personal X account: 

“We’re so grateful for the support you’ve shown us for the production of Penny Blood. Studio Wildrose will keep at it without giving up. We are in a very difficult situation right now where we cannot tell the truth, but I believe that the truth will eventually come out, and I feel that it is not far in the future. We hope you will continue to watch over us.” 

The outcome of the lawsuit remains to be seen. In the meantime, Studio Wildrose has announced “Penny Blood Inheritors Story Vol. 1,” an illustrated e-book containing stories set in the universe of Penny Blood and Shadow Hearts. The book is set to be released in Japanese and English via Amazon Kindle in December 2024, and proceeds from purchases will go directly to Wildrose Studio.