Indie dev cancels contract with publisher over "predatory" behaviour

gamesradar.com:

The Indonesia-based developer of narrative indie game Coffee Talk, Mojiken, has cancelled its contract with its publisher PQube Games amid accusations of "predatory" behaviour.

Earlier today on August 24, the development studio posted the statement below to its official Twitter account. In the statement, Mojiken claims publisher PQube Games, who it signed to publish the console versions of the forthcoming A Space for the Unbound, left them feeling "manipulated and exploited."

We have important news to share with you. pic.twitter.com/O5od8fCp4yAugust 24, 2022

This behaviour allegedly goes back to August 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Mojiken, PQube Games applied to obtain a "diversity fund from a well known console platform" without the studio's permission or knowledge, which was originally intended to help underrepresented developers.

Mojiken is now claiming it never received the grant from the publisher. Mojiken claims PQube Games "intentionally withheld information about the grant," and even "used it as leverage for their own commercial gain." The developer claims it was only privy to information about the grant as recently as March 2022.

As such, Mojiken has cancelled its contract with PQube Games to publish A Space for the Unbound to console platforms, effective immediately. Mojiken rounds out the statement by writing that it "cannot trust PQube Games nor continue to work together." 

However, although Mojiken has cancelled its contract with PQube Games, that doesn't mean they've retained publishing rights to A Space for the Unbound. In fact, the developer claims that the publisher is "refusing" to hand back console publishing rights for the game, and hence the developer has