Here we go again.

The same song and dance, which I’ll spoil for you before you get too excited. Shortly after my article investigating Dispatch Games’ MIAness went live, I got tipped off a bunch by you kind folk that a lot of you suddenly got refunds: whether from old emails getting replied to about them, or from trying to paypal dispute/chargeback. I’m kinda surprised they did this, but then I ended up realizing just what this really is and am still in the same skeptical spot I am last time.

Basically, in the last article we noted that Dispatch Games went completely MIA after being told off for their low localization efforts on Radirgy Swag, and have not responded to any sort on inquiry at all. No emails, no press reachouts, nothing. They went MIA yet again, but now doubling their usual 2 month stay. That’s inexcusable, full stop. You do not ever cut off communications with your paying customers like that, and there’s zero reason you couldn’t log into the twitter account for the occasional update, Brian. (yes, I’m referring to the CEO, since it’s clear he’s pretty much the one who runs everything)

And as noted there, they outright sold the location of their HQ listed on the back of every game: it finalized a week before the article went live, and I suspected they were taking the money and running due to the lack of updates on the situation whatsoever, especially when they’ve been asked for months and months now and haven’t given a response.

Yet, just as it sadly seems to be whenever I, Nintendo World Report or Nintendo Life or whoever else puts fire on the situation, there seems to be signs of life from Dispatch once again, that might lead to good news… or another laughable “NEW DAY” update promising games in a vague September window, who knows. When I shared this on a collection subreddit and advised people to push for chargebacks via bank/paypal if Dispatch didn’t reply to their emails for refunds, I immediately got alerted from several readers that Dispatch started the week on monday by immediately issuing refunds left and right: long-requested refunds, recently requested refunds, refunds in response to paypal disputes, they were finally handing out long, long overdue refunds to those who were seeking it. That’s one thing I hoped they’d maybe do with that money from the house at least.

Yet, according to both NosoyFEAddict on twitter and several on reddit/elsewhere, Dispatch have added in some of the replies this following note, indicating a return to social media. The following is from FEAddict.

OK, good news?!?? like the fifty million other times you promised good news?!? Honestly, at this point I’m expecting next to nothing, having seen a laughable loop many many times by now. The only way I’ll accept any sort of update by now, is if all the following are included:

Status on ALL FIVE games, and their CEs, and ETAs up to the wire: explain why they’ve taken two years, why you haven’t shipped out JPN Jajamaru PS4 imports since Japan got them, why you haven’t localized Soldam and put it on disc, and why your PSN library got delisted.

It has also been alerted to me since my original article that Rail sim was just like Tengoku in the sense that it was already fully finished: apparently, Sonic Powered did the localization, so the nightmare scenario I feared, was already overcome! Thus, that game is in the category of being as absurd to take so long to come out, as it could have easily released last year on physical cart due to every other aspect being 100% finished.

Explain Dispatch Minis and why they died: This is literally the only aspect I find myself talking about with nobody else mentioning it. Likely because it came and went so fast. Why did you publish indies only to abandon all of them within months? And then cease to mention them?

Explain the Vinyl situation.: I was tipped off that Radirgy got a Japanese vinyl release last year, so it’s actually more likely than Game Tengoku at this point to maybe make it out this year if they’re just importing the JP ones with a new slipcover. But still, everyone is fighting over records this year, big and small alike, so you gotta be blunt and honest about if the vinyls in the CE are gonna be in hell a little while longer, since I’ll give you credit on that aspect not being your fault.

Stop the social media pushback: Bragging about being better than Warned Collectors while falling into the same pitfalls as them, disabling twitter replies in 2020, erasing facebook comments every time you return. (This has gone far enough to the point every facebook post on their page was JUST nuked today, therefore erasing all their comments as well) It just makes you look blatantly bad and trying to avoid criticism on the fact you’re horrible at communication and leave customers out to dry without much notice whatsoever.

And most importantly, the biggest of all…

Explain your money troubles and solve them. We know you have them. It’s been super, super blatant with the harsh price cuts your games get at retail despite being high quality, the fact Psyvariar came out after Game Tengoku CEs went live, the fact said CEs were clearing appealing to the popular switch FOMO market and being a huge leap from the previous website merch bonuses, and most importantly, the fact you sold the damn headquarters. There’s no point in hiding it, especially if that’s why these games aren’t being made, and why Game Tengoku may end up as a PEGI title. Be blunt about it, and maybe even reach out to UFO or some publisher for better distribution. Though it may be hard, with how horrid you’ve tarnished your rep lately by just not answering concerns… Still, full blown honest can go a long, LONG way.

So yeah. I’m not expecting much from this “update” whatsoever, but the fact we’re at least seeing refunds returned means they didn’t just up and vanish forever… at least, not yet. Maybe they will ship the games and then leave, or perform a miracle comeback for the history books. I’d love to hope, but there’s just SO MUCH in need of improving and building back trust that it isn’t even funny. At this point I’m honestly expecting something dumb like Jaleco NFTs to be made as a last-ditch effort to gain quick funds for the rest of the CEs, or even worse, them announcing Deathsmiles Physicals before they even shipped the Game Tengoku ones.