The official X account of Japanese crowdfunding platform Ubgoe – which you might know as “that platforms that owes money to the Shibuya Scramble Stories development team” – just posted for the first time in over two months. According to the update, the company is currently in the midst of relocating its servers and physical address.
Founded in 2021 by Ubgoe Inc., Ubgoe is a crowdfunding platform that boasted a “zero-listing-fee model” for creators, instead sustaining itself through handling fees paid by backers.
In April this year, the platform’s website (https://ubgoe.com/) became inaccessible without prior notice, causing concern among users. Ubgoe’s official X account explained at the time that its servers had gone down, which also disabled email communications. The company said restoration efforts were underway and provided a Gmail address for urgent inquiries. Since then, the website has remained offline, and no further updates had been issued until today.
In the meantime, the platform came under scrutiny over reports of unpaid crowdfunding proceeds. The most prominent case is the campaign for Shibuya Scramble Stories, a new project by game designer Jiro Ishii. Around the end of March, Ishii revealed that around half of the roughly $340 thousand USD raised for the game had not been transferred to the development team, with attempts to retrieve the money from Ubgoe proving futile.
Other Japanese projects launched through Ubgoe reported similar issues. One example is the bishojo visual novel Purgatory: Blue, developed by ENDLESS SUMMER Studio (Neonlight LLC), whose team says none of the approximately $69 thousand raised through its crowdfunding campaign has actually reached them. Both projects have stated that development will continue despite the difficulties.
The Ubgoe issue has affected projects in other fields too. On June 19, it was reported that a crowdfunding campaign run by Japan’s Yamagata Railway to support the continued operation of its rail line had not received part of the approximately $49 thousand raised. According to domestic media reports, Yamagata Railway has been in contact with Ubgoe and is continuing discussions with the company.
Meanwhile, Nagaragawa Railway in Gifu Prefecture, which raised about $15 thousand through a crowdfunding campaign, told reporters that Ubgoe’s representative contacted the organization on June 15 and said monthly incremental payments of 500,000 yen (around $3k USD) would begin at the end of June.
Against this backdrop, Ubgoe’s statement that its address and servers are being relocated is its first public communication since the controversy began. It remains to be seen whether the company will respond to other affected campaign organizers and how it intends to address the outstanding payment issues.
Separately, cittan*, head of the aforementioned ENDLESS SUMMER Studio, reported via a blog post in May that they’d filed criminal complaints with the Shibuya Police Station against Ubgoe Inc. and its president Kazuo Okada. Nagaragawa Railway has also stated in media interviews that it is consulting with police and considering legal action, so hopefully the dispute is heading towards resolution.
