Earning a living creating independent video games and relying on international platforms is becoming a financial nightmare in the Asian country. To the surprise of the community, Japanese indie developer Takii Noame, specializing in yuri visual novels, was forced to delay the release of his anticipated title Watamari Part 2 – A Fake Marriage?. Why? Banks in Japan abruptly blocked all transfers of income from his previous games published on Steam.

The issue escalated quickly due to international policies. The developer publishes both all-ages games (the Watamari series) and works with explicit content (the Ne No Kami series), all through publisher Sekai Project. It turns out that Japanese authorities tightened reviews of international transfers to prevent money laundering, so the SBI Shinsei Bank demanded documentation about his earnings. When the bank discovered that part of the money came from adult yuri content sales, they simply refused to process the payments and notified the developer via a phone call.

Trying to save his finances, Takii Noame asked the publisher to send only the earnings from his all-ages games through Japan Post Bank. However, after another review, this transfer was also rejected without the bank giving any reason, something the creator calls a complete mystery. Although the studio has been fighting for a month and recently opened an account in another institution that only allows small amounts, the economic disaster caused the Watamari sequel to be delayed by at least two months. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case, as several game creators have reported similar incidents recently.

With financial institutions acting as moral censors to block legitimate earnings of indie developers, do you think Steam and international publishers should seek alternative payment methods like cryptocurrencies to protect these creators’ work?