Hatoful Boyfriend creator Hato Moa has taken to social media to confirm that Epic Games has paid her royalties owed for the game since 2021.
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Hato Moa says she’s finally received unpaid royalties owed since Epic acquired Mediatonic, the company responsible for helping Hato Moa create the HD version of Hatoful Boyfriend, two years ago.
She also says she believes Epic will “send [her] regular sales reports from now on”, and thanks “internet buzz”, which she says was “meaningful and helpful”, for solving the royalties issue.
Hato Moa originally declared that she hadn’t been paid royalties since Mediatonic’s acquisition back in September this year.
In that post, she said that the “obligations” to pay royalties were transferred to Epic when Mediatonic was acquired, but that they’ve “never sent any replies to [her]”.
Epic subsequently replied to Hato Moa, confirming they were looking into the issue. It seems that Epic was true to its word, if today’s news is anything to go by.
Hato Moa raised this issue around the same time that Epic Games laid off 830 employees, constituting around 16% of its overall workforce.
At that time, Hato Moa posted her support of Mediatonic on X, saying she was “sorry to hear that lovely talented people” from the studio “have to leave now”.
Hatoful Boyfriend was originally released in 2011 for PC, and was subsequently remade by Mediatonic (who would go on to create the jellybean battle royale game Fall Guys) in 2021.
This version of the game was published by Devolver Digital and was also made available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and mobile devices.
Unfortunately, as Hato Moa herself stated in September, this version of the game was removed from sale on those platforms in 2021, apparently owing to Epic’s acquisition of Mediatonic.
Hatoful Boyfriend remains available on PC via Steam.
