Japanese company says it sent half of a game's $345,000 crowdfunding campaign to the wrong people – who, uh, did not return the money

A black and blue image shows a stylized version of Tokyo's Shibuya crossing.

Japanese crowdfunding site Ubgoe owes game designer Jiro Ishii and independent developer Skeleton Crew Studio over half of the 55 million yen – approximately $345,000 – they raised for new visual novel Shibuya Scramble Stories. CEO Kazuo Okada says the platform kinda, sorta lost it, or something.

Actually, it was a misunderstanding – Ishii says Okada told him the cash was unfortunately "mistakenly wired to a different client," according to an Automaton translation, and now Ubgoe can't hand over the missing $173,000 because they won't give it back. But Okada won't show Ishii proof of this transaction, and now Ishii and his lawyer are skeptical it ever occurred.