PayPal Withholding Indie Game Dev's €600,000 Account

epee1221 writes "Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch, the developer of Minecraft, posted on his development blog today that PayPal limited his account with unspecified cause on August 25th. Since then, payments for the alpha version of Minecraft have continued accumulating while Notch has been unable to withdraw them, and the account now contains over €600,000. PayPal recently told him it may take up to two more weeks for things to get sorted out and that if they conclude that there is funny business involved, they will keep the money." This unfortunate news followed an announcement a few days ago that he and a friend would be starting a studio of their own to continue development on Minecraft and start working on a new project.

Paypall thanks you for the interest free loan

[spun]

The CEOs were bouncing around in their piles of money so exuberantly that one got sick in his. The amount of money in your account fits our CEO frolicking needs perfectly. Thank you for the interest free loan, and don't ask about the funny smell on your money when you do receive it.

Re:Return the money

[hypergreatthing]

Obviously they'll decide that the funny business is indeed happening. From Paypal's side. And they'll keep the money.

Re:Paypal are notorious for this

[zero_out]

I wonder why my employer's WebSense filter blocked it as being "tasteless." Any ideas?

Re:Sigh

[bsDaemon]

they may well be committing several laws

Congress commits several laws every year, but no one's stopped them yet...

Re:When is a bank not a bank

[geekoid]

The Vogons go into a rage of poetry writing when thinking about Paypal Bureaucracy.

Re:When is a bank not a bank

[dziban303]

Give me your credit card number, expiration date, CVV code and billing zip code and I'll check to see if it's still in our system. Thanks for using PayPal©!

Re:Has anyone asked....

[Beelzebud]

I know, right? I thought ALL PC gamers just pirated games!

Re:Paypal are notorious for this

[jgagnon]

The day I have to taste anything that comes up on my monitor is the day I stop using computers.

PayPal has done worse

[Anonymous Coward]

In 2003, I sold a radio at a hamfest for about $800... the guy dropped it at some point on his way home and tried to make me give him his money back.

I refused, naturally, but since he had my email address, he somehow managed to get Paypal to take the money right out of my checking account and give it to him, even though the transaction had nothing to do with Paypal.

I never did get that money back... or the radio.

Re:Has anyone asked....

[Angst Badger]

Or why, with 600,000 in revenue, he's even using PayPal at all instead of just getting a merchant account with a real bank? Hell, *I* did that with a project that ended up making a whopping $750.

Re:When is a bank not a bank

[Anonymous Coward]

If PayPal stole close to $1,000,000.00 US from me and I couldn't get it back through legal methods, I'd burn their fucking building to the ground with them in it. That's more money than a lot of people see in their entire lifetime.

Re:When is a bank not a bank

[Surt]

Hah. I suggested paypal had serious problems in another thread and got jumped on by some paypal engineer. Bet he's enjoying this thread!

Re:When is a bank not a bank

[LordArgon]

Go to a bank and ask about your options. After I got out of school and went to get my first credit card, I couldn't get one because I had no credit history and was no longer in the "terrible credit risk" demographic (see the documentary "Maxed Out," btw). Anyway, the bank had a "secured" card in which I prepaid (set my own credit limit with cash) and used it for a year. At the end of the year of responsible use, they gave me my money back and let me keep the credit limit. Now I have a credit history and have since obtained several more credit cards (which I max out and never pay! hahahah.... but not really)

Re:When is a bank not a bank

[StikyPad]

I take it a step further and just use borrowed cards.