Recently, the distributor has been accused of applying for a grant that was never used for one of its projects.
PQube has made a name for itself as a video game distributor after bringing us titles like Tormented Souls, Cat Quest or Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary, but it has recently dominated the news for a series of accusations poured by some of the developers with whom it works. In this case, it was the Corecell study, authors of AeternoBlade II, who have publicly pointed out to the editor.
PQube only paid a small part of the minimum guarantee promisedCorecellIn a statement posted on Twitter, the developer explains the reasons why they decided to break the collaboration agreement with the distributor in 2020: “PQube has published AeternoBlade II on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Europe since October 2019 under a publishing agreement with us and agreed to pay us a minimum guarantee. However, PQube only paid a small part of the minimum signature milestone guarantee when we ship the game to you and they never paid the remaining milestones“explains the Corecell team.
“We have attempted to resolve this issue with PQube, but were unable to reach a solution, which led us to terminate the publishing agreement in September 2020,” the study’s message continues. “Nevertheless, PQube has refused to return post control to us on console platforms and continues to sell and keep all proceeds from AeternaBlade II.”
PQube offered to return publication control to us only if we agreed to keep the topic secretCorecell“PQube offered to return post control to us only if we agreed to keep this topic secretbut we didn’t want to be involved in more agreements with PQube”, reveals the developer. “We knew something was wrong, but as a small and independent developer, we couldn’t afford to pay the legal fees to fight the case in another country”. After this , Corecell explains that the European stores of Nintendo and Sony they have already removed the game at the studio’s request, though they haven’t seen a dollar of the proceeds.
PQube’s answer
These fixes never materialized and Corecell did not respond.PQubeAlthough this puts PQube at the center of the controversy, the company has not been slow to issue a statement that reflects its own version of the situation: “In our post-launch meeting in January 2020, Corecell admitted significant quality issues in the product and agreed to offer critical corrections to make the game commercially viable”, explains the publisher through a statement sent to VG247. “Unfortunately, these fixes never materialized and Corecell did not respond.”
“PQube remained prepared to pay the full warranty on the game, despite poor reviews and sales, and release the PC version in accordance with PQube’s option in the deal,” the publisher continues. “Corecell agreed in March 2020 to offer a PC version to PQube, but then they proceeded to register and launch the PC version by themselves without any discussion with PQube”.
“Over the next 2 years, PQube proposed and submitted numerous proposals and supporting agreements to revert the rights to Corecell in accordance with their request, but these were not recognized by Corecell“, the editor continues in her message. “However, despite all the challenges and lack of communication, PQube released the rights of the console versions to Corecell well before the end of the deal term.
Of course, each party has offered its own version of events, so we will be attentive to the evolution of this problem in case the situation is finally clarified. Beyond this, it should be remembered that PQube starred in a story in which it was accused of manipulating one of its collaborating studios, taking advantage of its characteristics to get hold of a grant that it never used for the developer’s original project.
More about: AeternoBlade II, CoreCell and PQube.
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