While being merely two days away from the finish line, Vladimir Putin-approved Areal has been suspended on Kickstarter. Kickstarter determined during an investigation that West Games has broken a campaign rule, of which they unfortunately do not disclose, and now the studio will lose all its pledges.
Despite that Kickstarter refuses to disclose its reason for shutting down Areal ’s campaign, the developers have engaged in enough sketchy behavior to garner skepticism from the community. West Games has been criticized for not putting enough footage and details about the game on their Kickstarter page, and some think that a recent letter (allegedly) sent by Vladimir Putin, which supposedly endorses the Kickstarter, might just be a publicity stunt.
West Games prepared a statement in order to fend off these accusations, claiming that Kickstarter didn’t want to surround itself with controversy.
“After Vice news wrote an article about us, people started contributing every minute, but Kickstarter was afraid of the controversy surrounding our project, so they suspended funding,” wrote West Games. “We set our base goal at 50K; even with 2 days left, we raised more than 64 thousand dollars, and our competitors were doing everything that they could to stop that. Kickstarter is a business, and that was their decision. We were not warned, we do not have a say in the matter, we cannot notify our backers, we cannot message our backers, and we can’t post updates anymore. That is how Kickstarter chose to act.”
The studio is currently asking for direct funding through their website. Whether or not they’ll be able to replicate the same success, at least prior to the shutdown, in light of recent events remains to be seen.
[ Polygon]