Japanese indie studio ENDLESS SUMMER Studio (Neon Light LLC) recently shared on X that a “continuation fundraiser” has been initiated for their upcoming sci-fi visual novel Purgatory: Blue. The new crowdfunding effort on Ci-en began July 28, with a target of 500,000 yen, and the studio clarified that the funds will help resume development after the previous crowdfunding campaign was paused due to platform issues.
As background, Purgatory: Blue’s initial fundraiser on Ubgoe launched in July 2025, collecting 10.93 million yen, or 156% of its set goal. Despite the project’s success, the studio faced difficulties when Ubgoe failed to deliver the collected funds, despite agreeing to make the payment by November of that year.
Ubgoe has recently come under fire from other developers, including acclaimed creator Jiro Ishii, who revealed that the platform withheld a significant portion of the funds for his upcoming project Shibuya Scramble Stories. In the midst of these issues, the website has been inaccessible since April 15, with Ubgoe’s last public comment being a brief X post stating they are “working on restoring/migrating the website’s server.” In response, ENDLESS SUMMER studio has filed criminal charges with the Shibuya Police Station against Ubgoe, accusing the company of embezzlement.
Despite the financial challenges, Purgatory: Blue lead developer cittan* remains committed to completing and delivering the game to all backers. In a Ci-en post, he explained that the decision to launch the current crowdfunding campaign was made to ensure the project’s development can continue. cittan* noted that the project has secured some production funds from an unnamed overseas publisher, but emphasized that these are loans requiring future repayment. The post further detailed that the funds will be used to restart outsourced production that was halted due to lack of funds, cover ongoing legal expenses, and handle operating costs.
ENDLESS SUMMER studio also plans to launch a separate crowdfunding initiative to localize Purgatory: Blue for overseas players, promising to share more details on this project later. They clarified, however, that this is a distinct project aimed at international supporters, not an additional request for support from Japanese backers.
Purgatory: Blue is currently in development and scheduled to release in May 2027 for PC (Steam, DLSite).