{"id":53583,"date":"2025-11-05T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53583"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T06:30:36","slug":"cygames-steps-in-to-refund-umamusume-pretty-derby-fans-after-expensive-blunder-by-third-party-vendor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/cygames-steps-in-to-refund-umamusume-pretty-derby-fans-after-expensive-blunder-by-third-party-vendor\/","title":{"rendered":"Cygames steps in to refund Umamusume: Pretty Derby fans after expensive blunder by third-party vendor\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Cygames announced on October 31 that it will be personally offering refunds to&nbsp;<strong>Umamusume: Pretty Derby <\/strong>players affected by Flosta, a company that was supposed to provide custom celebratory flower arrangements at&nbsp;a recent live event related to the game (as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itmedia.co.jp\/news\/articles\/2510\/31\/news119.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ITMedia<\/a>). &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ahead of the \u201cUmamusume 6<sup>th<\/sup> Event: The New Frontier\u201d live performance held on October 18 and 19, Flosta offered custom flower sprays using motifs of in-game characters and personalized messages. Fans could purchase these stands and have them displayed at the event as gifts to the performing cast \u2013 a pricy but common \u201cfandom\u201d practice in Japan. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flosta\u2019s&nbsp;prices ranged from $450 to $600 for the custom Umamusume standing sprays, but the results were far from worth the money. On the day of the event, numerous fans complained about their orders not being displayed at the venue at all, and the orders that did make it were apparently of subpar quality, with designs significantly differing from what was requested.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30a6\u30de\u5a186th\u306e\u30d5\u30e9\u30b9\u30bf\u9a12\u52d5\u3055\u2026\u9811\u5f35\u3063\u3066\u4fee\u5fa9\u3057\u305f\u3093\u3060\u308d\u3046\u3051\u3069\u521d\u65e5\u306b\u9593\u306b\u5408\u308f\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u4e0a\u306b\u3053\u3093\u306a\u96d1\u306b\u30c7\u30b6\u30a4\u30f3\u5909\u66f4\u3055\u308c\u3066\u308b\u306e\u3042\u3093\u307e\u308a\u3059\u304e\u3093\u304b\uff1f<br><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/6th%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E4%BC%9A%E5%A0%B4?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#6th\u30d0\u30fc\u30c1\u30e3\u30eb\u30d5\u30e9\u30b9\u30bf\u4f1a\u5834<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YinqfkOOmD\">pic.twitter.com\/YinqfkOOmD<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u3068\u308a (@putyourhandup0) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/putyourhandup0\/status\/1979812730392727744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The vendor <a href=\"https:\/\/umamusume.flosta.co.jp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">issued an apology<\/a> on October 22, citing that \u201cdue to insufficient preparation, we were unable to complete installation of the flower sprays in time\u201d and that \u201cmany arrangements became unusable after being damaged in a transport accident.\u201d At the time, Flosta promised full refunds to purchasers by the end of October.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite this, Cygames announced on October 31 that \u201cafter repeated discussions with Flosta, it has been confirmed they are unable to carry out the refund process.\u201d Cygames will therefore&nbsp;step in to handle refunds on the company\u2019s behalf. The developer apologized for the delay in affected fans getting their money back. While Umamusume players are thankful for Cygames taking responsibility, many can\u2019t help but <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/N5WWlyEOcmZgvma\/status\/1984140285857911121\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">point out that it\u2019s unfair<\/a> for the developer to take on the financial burden, despite not being at fault. On the other hand, given that Cygames is technically responsible for choosing Flosta as the vendor for its event, this seems to be a necessary effort to maintain credibility and trust from fans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cygames will be refunding fans on behalf of Flosta, who has declared that it will be unable to carry out refunds as previously promised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":8939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cygames steps in to refund Umamusume: Pretty Derby fans after expensive blunder by third-party vendor\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cygames will be refunding fans on behalf of Flosta, who has declared that it will be unable to carry out refunds as previously promised.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/cygames-steps-in-to-refund-umamusume-pretty-derby-fans-after-expensive-blunder-by-third-party-vendor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cygames steps in to refund Umamusume: Pretty Derby fans after expensive blunder by third-party vendor\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cygames will be refunding fans on behalf of Flosta, who has declared that it will be unable to carry out refunds as previously promised.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/cygames-steps-in-to-refund-umamusume-pretty-derby-fans-after-expensive-blunder-by-third-party-vendor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-04T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/20220125-189831-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cygames steps in to refund Umamusume: Pretty Derby fans after expensive blunder by third-party vendor\u00a0 - 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