From the Indiegogo Update:

PayPal Refuse to Release Yatagarasu AoC Funding

Bad news. Today we found out this morning that PayPal have restricted Nyu Media’s PayPal account and are refusing to release funding raised for Yatagarasu AoC.

The email from PayPal advises us that they have ‘reserved’ the funding and will release ‘up to 50% of the funds’ before Yatagarasu AoC is released and the rest only after they have verified copies of paid invoices. What’s more, they provide no option to discuss, stating we should ‘contact us closer to the release date beginning of next year’ to arrange release of the funds.

We appreciate irony as much as the next person, but PayPal refusing to provide funds legitimately raised to complete a game until after the game is released isn’t just beyond ridiculous – it potentially derails the game development. To add insult to injury, not only do Nyu Media and the Yatagarasu developer team have rock solid track records, but we’ve already provided PayPal with documents providing the bona fides of Nyu Media, the developer, and the campaign.

To be fair, we should have seen this coming – it doesn’t take much research to find other examples of PayPal’s practice of refusing to release funds for crowdfunding campaigns (e.g. Skullgirls, Glassup), but chalk this up to our misplaced faith that PayPal might have changed their approach since then.

We are discussing implications with the Yatagarasu development team and will press our case with PayPal UK’s customer service when they opentomorrow. Best case scenario: reason and PayPal’s new “Customer First” direction bring this to a swift conclusion; worst case scenario: we may end up refunding PayPal contributions and arranging donations by other methods. Please stand by and we will provide updates just as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please feel free to help our cause by directing any feedback or directly to @PayPalUK and @PayPal.

Sincerely,

Seon
Founder, Nyu Media