Game publisher Ambition announced on July 30 that it would shut down its live-service puzzle game Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost on July 31. The EOS follows the announcement of Ambition Co., Ltd’s closure.
According to a report by credit investigation firm Tokyo Shoko Research, Ambition received a provisional administration order and a comprehensive prohibition order from the Tokyo District Court on July 3. The provisional administration order is a system in which asset management is entrusted to a court-appointed administrator. Courts in Japan usually give this order for the period between the filing for a bankruptcy and the passing of a formal decision regarding the bankruptcy in order to secure a company’s assets during the bankruptcy proceedings. On the other hand, a comprehensive prohibition order is a measure that prohibits creditors from taking actions such as compulsory execution. In other words, Ambition has gone bankrupt.
While EOS is heartbreaking news for most of the game’s fanbase, players were disappointed to hear that Ambition does not intend to issue refunds for unused Ability Stones, the primary in-game currency for Tales of the Lost’s character gacha. As the reason for this, the company cites Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Terms of Service (Article 13, Paragraph 1 in the English version): “The Company bears no responsibility for repayments or payments of any damages to you or any third party in the event of partial or full interruption of the Service.”
However, according to Japan’s Payment Services Act, Article 20, Paragraph 1, when an issuer of prepaid payment instruments (in this case, in-game currency) has discontinued all or part of the business which handles the issuing of prepaid payment instruments, they are obliged to refund the outstanding balance. This means that Ambition would legally have to refund unused Ability Stones to their players. Furthermore, according to Paragraph 2 of the same Article, the issuer must notify customers of the intention to provide refunds, and is required to set a claim period of at least 60 days.
The fact that the game’s Terms of Service directly clash with the Japanese Law has drawn criticism from the community, with many players questioning the legality of Ambition’s refusal to offer refunds.
Interestingly in an official disclosure based on the Payment Services Act issued by Ambition itself for the iOS versions of their games, it is stated that, as a general rule, the company will not issue refunds after a product has been sold. However, they also state that this rule doesn’t apply in case of discontinuation of particular content, which also clashes with their recent announcements.
On a related note, it seems that while Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost faced the unfortunate fate of shutting down, other Ambition’s games have been moved to other publishers. Users report that Arcatopia, Nijiiro Kanojo 2d, Fairy Doll and Rogue of Déjà vu, among some other games operated by Ambition, are now published under Vitalify.
