As previously reported, Lab Zero Games was able to raise nearly $830,000 to fund a host of additional DLC for Skullgirls, including new characters, their story modes, plus stages. So you'd think that the studio would be on cloud nine, correct? Wrong.
GameIndustry International reports the absolute mess they're in the middle of. Basically, PayPal, which accepted the donations for the aforementioned IndieGoGo campaign, all of a sudden feels very skittish about the large dollar amount.
So much so that they asked Lab Zero Games to take on the risk if a large number of backers requested to cancel their pledges. Which apparently is a possibility, since many who donated might not be happy if the character they voted for during the campaign doesn't end up in the final game.
Peter Batholow, Lab Zero's chief executive officer, declined the request. And as a result, PayPal has completely frozen the entire company's account. Batholow chose to vent his frustrations on NeoGAF:
"Whee! Paypal's freeze on our account is making it so that I can't pay people today.
I am pretty fucking pissed. I sent them all the documentation they asked for last night, hoping it would be resolved today, but didn't hear anything back.
…I also immediately filed a complaint with the CFPB because this whole thing seems decidedly non-kosher."
Later in the day, PayPal unfroze Lab Zero Games' account, but chose to hold onto $35,000 as collateral. It is believe that they may sit on the money until the fan voting is over with, which is still going on over at Facebook.
Batholow had this to say to VentureBeat:
"Paypal called me today to inform me that the restrictions on my account had been lifted, so I can get back to paying our contractors today… I think this is still pretty sketchy and have filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, so hopefully that will become unrestricted in the near future."
Unfortunately, some members in the fighting community feel that they understand where PayPal is coming from, specifically their need to protect their own interests. Because there apparently are a high number of supporters who might indeed cancel their pledges if they do not get what they want, with little regard to the overall repercussions that such an action would cause to Lab Zero Games.
