Skeleton Crew Studio, the developer behind the upcoming live-action visual novel Shibuya Scramble Stories, announced on Friday that the game’s second round of crowdfunding hosted on Campfire has concluded, earning a total of 43.6 million yen, or just under $275,000 USD. This was more than quadruple the original goal of the Campfire campaign, which sought to raise 10 million yen (Approx. $63,000 USD) to bolster the game’s budget.
Shibuya Scramble Stories has had a rocky development over the last few months, beginning with the game’s first crowdfunding service Ubgoe failing to pay out more than half of the amount raised back in March. While pursuing legal options, the staff has also run into internal struggles, including the withdrawal of one of the lead actors, Masakazu Arai in June, and the recent emergency hospitalization of director Jiro Ishii.
Despite these setbacks, Skeleton Crew seems to remain optimistic about the game’s future. Ishii assured fans that his hospital stay would be a short one, and that he was eager to get back to work in the coming weeks. The second round of crowdfunding saw an immediate surge of support from fans, surpassing its initial 10-million-yen goal in only an hour. The game’s official X account posted a message highlighting how close the game was to reaching a total of 100 million yen in crowdfunded donations across both the Ubgoe and Campfire campaigns, and while the results of the Campfire campaign fell just short of reaching that milestone, a second phase of donations scheduled for the month of September is sure to bring them over the line.
While Ubgoe broke their silence last month in an effort to explain why no one could access their website, citing the relocation of their servers and physical address, there have still been no updates on the nearly 28 million yen they owe Skeleton Crew, or the money they’ve failed to pay out to any of their other recent clients for that matter. The website remains offline at the time of this writing.
Shibuya Scramble Stories is envisioned as a spiritual successor to Chunsoft’s Machi and 428: Shibuya Scramble, the latter of which was also created by Ishii. The game is currently targeting a release sometime in 2028.
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