Penny Blood developer Studio Wildrose has filed a lawsuit in Osaka against Dangen Entertainment and its ex-CEO Ben Judd.
Dangen managed the 2022 double Kickstarter campaign for Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia, which raised about ¥380m JPY overall. So despite the campaign’s success, it appears things aren’t going so well for the team behind the Shadow Hearts successor.
On Twitter/X, Studio Wildrose lead Matsuzo Machida shared notice of the suit, apparently filed back on May 28th. Wildrose and Machida claim Dangen hasn’t paid production funds raised during the double Kickstarter campaign.
The fact the suit was filed in May lines up with Studio Wildrose’s July 2024 Kickstarter update, where we learned that Penny Blood was struggling to find a publisher. As stated in their November development update, the team hasn’t given up on the search.
There are only two months left in the year, which means two years have passed since the double kickstarter campaign. Unfortunately, we still have not found a publisher for Penny Blood. However, we at Studio Wild Rose have not lost hope, and continue to work on various content through which we can bring the characters and world of Penny Blood to life.
One is a project in which new stories will be created, bringing in new characters while still inheriting the world and settings that have been passed on from Shadow Hearts to Penny Blood. We excel in creating charming characters, worlds and settings and putting them into exciting stories, so while this won’t be another game, we hope to deliver it to you all as a different type of entertainment. I’m planning to reveal information on this across the end of this year, so please look forward to it.
I also want to give another heartfelt thanks to the backers all over the world who have supported us, the fans from long ago who continue to support us, and all the moderators who have been doing their best to keep the project alive.
Penny Blood Screenshots
For additional context, Judd resigned from Dangen in 2019 following allegations of abuse and misconduct. Given the lawsuit, however, it appears that Judd is still involved with the company. The former publisher has so far not issued a response regarding this matter.
Stay tuned to RPGFan for further updates on Penny Blood.
Source: Twitter/X, Siliconera
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