Following the acquisition of Desura by Bad Juju back in November, 2014 from the former owners, Linden Lab, a controversy has been brewing in the indie sector of the game distribution platform: the new owners of Desura haven’t been paying devs on time and in due order and they’ve finally made a public statement to address these concerns.

Over on the official Desura website, Lady Aijou from Bad Juju stated…

“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 supposedly been compounded with the hospitalization of the CEO, Tony Novak. According to Lady Aijou, Novak is unable to address some of the more pressing concerns from the games media who may have questions about developers not receiving payments on time.

Aijou stated…

“We do need to ask patience on the part of the press for inquiries to us about these issues. Tony has been in contact from the hospital to say that he has been admitted, and his health is a pressing concern and top priority to us.”

It’s interesting that Novak’s health took a decline once this issue went public, as covered by sites like Blues News.

Speaking of Blues News… one user named toT commented, saying…

“This reminds me of all of the online poker sites that have gone bust. When payouts start getting delayed they all release a statement like this, when in fact all the money is already gone and they are relying on new deposits to pay off the delayed cash outs. This seems like a similar situation to me. They need developers to keep putting games up for sale on the service, and need customers to keep buying in order to pay off the people they already owe money to.”

And Paul Heyman said the same thing before ECW went bust. That’s not to mention that there was a recent report on the former CEO of various companies, a Marty Brickey, who was caught in an alleged scam for money fraud for up to $14.5 million throughout his tenure at various companies, as reported by Game Politics.

Hopefully Desura is able to stand back up on its own two feet. According to the post on the website, Lady Aijou stated…

“We are not refusing to pay [developers], 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.”

Some of the developers in the comment section aren’t buying into the PR speak, and have already declared that they won’t be doing business with Desura anymore; others are willing to accept that this was just a hiccup while others are progressing with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Desura was always a neat outlet for indie titles and hardly-ever-heard-of games that are kind of cool but rarely get a proper platform to get showcased. Desura previously came to the aid of customers during the #GamerGate scandal involving David S. Gallant, but it remains to be seen how far along that good will will take them in this particular case.