Japanese indie game developer ENDLESS SUMMER Studio (Neon Light LLC) announced in a recent X update that a “continuation fundraiser” has begun for their upcoming sci-fi visual novel Purgatory: Blue. Kicking off the new fundraiser on the platform Ci-en starting July 28, with a target goal of 500,000 yen, the studio explained that funds raised will be used to ensure that development can resume after the last crowdfunding campaign was halted due to complications with the platform.
For context, Purgatory: Blue’s previous fundraiser launched on the website Ubgoe in July 2025, amassing a total of 10.93 million yen, or 156% of its original goal. Despite the crowdfunding project’s success, complications arose when Ubgoe failed to deliver the raised funds to the developers despite their agreement to schedule the payment by November that same year.
Ubgoe has been drawing the ire of other project’s recently, with acclaimed game developer Jiro Ishii announcing that the platform withheld most of the funds for his upcoming project Shibuya Scramble Stories. Amidst all of this, the website itself remains inaccessible since April 15, with the last public statement on the matter by Ubgoe being a brief X post that they are “working on restoring/migrating the website’s server.” In light of this, ENDLESS SUMMER studio has been pursuing criminal charges with the Shibuya Police Station against Ubgoe, accusing the company of embezzlement.
Despite the financial setback, Purgatory: Blue lead developer cittan* considers himself responsible for seeing to it that the game is completed and delivered to everyone who backed the project. In a Ci-en post, he explained that the decision to launch the ongoing crowdfunding campaign was made to ensure development for the entire project can resume. According to cittan*, the project has received some production funds from an unnamed overseas publisher. However, he emphasizedthat these funds are loans that must be repaid in the future. The post further clarified that the funds will be used to resume outsourced production which had been temporarily halted due to lack of funds, alongside ongoing legal action costs, and operating expenses.
ENDLESS SUMMER studio also plans to launch a separate crowdfunding project for the purpose of releasing Purgatory: Blue in other languages for overseas players, promising to update more on the details of the project at a later date. They clarify, however, that this is not a request for additional support from backers in Japan, but rather a separate project directed at potential supporters in international markets.
Purgatory: Blue is currently in development and planned to launch in May 2027 for PC (Steam, DLSite).
