Indie publisher and developer Toge Productions, known primarily for the visual novel about the barista Coffee Talk, decided to expand. The company announced that it has joined the Mojiken Studio.
Coffee Talk
The amount of the transaction and its terms are not disclosed. It is only known that Mojiken Studio will continue to work under its own name.
The companies have been cooperating for many years. Toge Productions has published almost all the games of Mojiken Studio and last year, because of one of them - the adventure game A Space for the Unbound — was at the center of a scandal.
In August 2022, the company was accused of fraud by the British publisher PQube, who was responsible for the release of A Space for the Unbound in Western countries. According to Toge Productions and Mojiken Studio, in 2020, the publisher "used their Indonesian origin" to receive a grant from a "well-known console platformer." PQube hid this from the developers and instead of just allocating money to them, indicated the grant amount in the contract as minimum guarantees. According to the companies, the publisher then tried to put pressure on them and increase their share of revenue from the game.
In response to the accusation, PQube stated that it had fulfilled all obligations to the companies. He supported Toge Productions at every stage of the work on A Space for the Unbound, despite all the delays. In particular, PQube additionally provided "significant" funds that went to the refinement of the game, its porting and marketing. In addition, PQube noted that Toge Productions wanted to unilaterally make "unreasonable changes" to the contract.
In October 2022, the parties settled the conflict. PQube transferred grant money to the companies and relinquished the rights to A Space for the Unbound.
Toge Productions was founded in 2009. At first, she was engaged in the development of browser and mobile games, but then she started working on projects for PC. Her portfolio includes games such as Coffee Talk, Necronator: Dead Wrong, Kriegsfront Tactics and Infectonator: Survivors. Since 2017, the company has also been publishing games from third-party studios.
Mojiken Studio, which opened in 2013, mainly develops adventure games. In addition to A Space for the Unbound, she created When The Past Was Around, She and the Light Bearer and A Raven Monologue.