Desura and Indie Royale accused of not paying developers

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Indie developers have raised word that digital distribution site Desura, and its bundle site Indie Royale, have been failing to pay them.

In a post on /r/IndieGaming, a developer of Battle Fleet 2 claims that it has not received payment since the launch on the platform in 2014, and has also not had much luck in the way of communication either.

This post highlights a different reddit post from five months ago, where other developers had also come forward saying that sales made through Desura and Indie Royale have not been paid for.

Among these is Mike Maulbeck, the developer of Paranautical Activity, who has since received payment after publicly tweeting about the issue.

One developer received word from Bad JuJu a few days ago (note Maulbeck’s tweet is from almost six months ago) with reasons as to why people have not been paid. It lists a multitude of reasons/excuses, depending how you interpret them:

Desura has also said its CEO is currently in hospital, and has released a post explaining the situation:

“This morning, we have been working hard to address the concerns and fears surrounding delayed payments on Desura. We want to reach out and let everyone know that those experiencing payment issues ARE being heard. First and foremost we want to apologize that this has happened at all, one dev experiencing this is one too many. The issues have stemmed from a number of factors coming together in a bad way. The acquisition of the company last year has presented us with a number of very difficult issues to tackle, and we have been clearing those hurdles as efficiently as we are able. This has been compounded by the office being relocated, and by the current hospitalization of our CEO… 

We are not refusing to pay you, this is a promise. There are delays, and issues which need work to correct, but we will absolutely be paying all accounts due. If you have not reached out about your issue, please email one of the above addresses, and you WILL get a reply from me personally. You do matter, and we are taking this very seriously

I hope that this will help to allay some of the fear and anger surrounding this. I do understand the frustration, and we are already working on changes. The entire site and client are being completely redone, to give developers far more control. I hope that our devs will work with us on the solutions, and will please bear with us a little while longer as we implement the changes that are needed.”

In late 2014, Linden Labs sold Desura to Bad JuJu. This change in management appears to be the root of the problem, as many of the previous lines of communication appear to be unstaffed now.

Destructoid has reached out to Bad JuJu for a statement, however we have yet to receive one. We will update should we hear from Bad JuJu.


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