A Space Unbound’s publishing issues have been resolved “to the satisfaction of all parties”
Toge Productions still handling PC publishing, Chorus Worldwide taking over from PQube
Fantastical slice-of-life adventure game A Space For The Unbound has resolved its publishing problems, developers Mojiken Studio have revealed. In a joint statement with UK-based publishers PQube, shared on the game’s Twitter account, Mojiken and the game’s PC publishers Toge Productions said they’ve “reached an agreement to the satisfaction of all parties”. Toge Productions will continue to handle publishing for A Space For The Unbound on PC, while Chorus Worldwide are taking over console publication.
A Space For The Unbound is a point-and-click adventure that tells the story of two high school students in Indonesia in the Nineties, with the supernatural twist that you can ‘space dive’ into other people’s minds using a magical book. As I reported back in August, Mojiken and Toge Productions indefinitely delayed the game and claimed that PQube had acted in a “predatory” manner against them. The two companies accused PQube of using Mojiken’s Indonesian heritage to obtain a diversity grant as “leverage for their own commercial gain”.
Mojiken and Toge Productions said they were terminating their agreement with PQube, but insisted the company was refusing to return the console publishing rights. PQube responded with their own statement, claiming that Toge Productions had “sought for some time to unilaterally enforce unreasonable revised terms” to their agreement. The UK-based publisher also insisted they had “honoured all obligations” and supported Toge Productions, including “significant further funding, over and above grant funding”.
The companies now seem to have come to an acceptable arrangement, although it doesn't sound like they'll be working together again in the future:
While the situation between Mojiken, Toge Productions, and PQube seems to have resolved, in September Corecell Technology accused PQube of withholding money from their publishing agreement for action puzzler AeternoBlade 2. I’ve reached out to Corecell to see if PQube have been in touch over the rights to that game.
We named A Space For The Unbound one of our most anticipated games of 2022 at the start of this year. Katharine found the game charming in her A Space For The Unbound preview too, particularly its cats. “I want to find out more about this pair of school kids, who they are, how they became friends, and what happens to Nirmala and her family if, and when, she manages to get home after the storm,” she said. “I want to see more of Atma's space dives, too, and most importantly, I must, nay, NEED to pet more of the town's lovely, purring cats.”
A Space For The Unbound still doesn’t have a firm release date attached, but the statement suggests one should be announced soon. In the meantime, you can check out the demo on Steam.