Japanese game development company Pixel recently announced that their ongoing lawsuit with ex-Konami composer Motoaki Furukawa had finally concluded with a ruling by the Sendai High Court on July 7.
Back in February 2022, Pixel sued Furukawa over unpaid development fees for Steam Pilots, a vertical-scrolling shooter that the composer hired the company to develop. The project started in 2019, raising over 10 million yen in crowdfunding. However, development ended up getting halted due to the company not being paid and project terms allegedly being changed one-sidedly, as noted by Pixel.
Furukawa responded by filing two lawsuit of his own the following year, one seeking damages from Pixel as a company, the other seeking personal compensation from Pixel’s CEO on account of emotional distress. Regarding the first lawsuit, in which Furukawa sought roughly $47 thousand USD in damages, the company argues that the basis of Furukawa’s claim was that the project was being developed anew by a separate developer, but there was allegedly no concrete evidence of the game being developed except the developer’s personal testimony.
Ultimately, the Sendai District Court handed down its first-instance ruling in January this year, which resulted in the dismissal of both Pixel’s and Furukawa’s lawsuits. However, the court did order Pixel’s CEO to personally pay 400,000 yen in compensation to Furukawa.
Unhappy with the ruling, Pixel went on to appeal to the Sendai High Court, but the court ultimately upheld the first-instance ruling. In a lengthy update on X, which lays out all of the details of the lawsuit, Pixel called the verdict “completely unacceptable,” criticizing the court for disregarding the circumstances of the crowdfunding campaign.
Due to this, Pixel had considered appealing to the Supreme Court. However, it ultimately decided to accept the verdict, saying that “instead of continuing to be involved in the matter, it is in the company’s best interest to move on.”
