Areal developers call out journalists after allegations of being a Kickstarter scam

The developers behind Kickstarter-funded video game Areal are calling out journalists following accusations that the studio's Kickstarter campaign is a scam.

Areal has been at the center of controversy since the project's start on the crowdfunding website. While developer West Games claims to be made up of staff from STALKER, the validity of this claim is said to be "overestimated," Eurogamer has reported based on statements from Oleg Yavorsky, spokesperson for Vostok Games - one of the studios to come out of the demise of STALKER developer GSC. Likewise, of the full team at West Games, it appears as though its only former GSC artist Yuriy Negrobov who could have previously worked in the core team of STALKER.

Others have claimed footage from STALKER: Call of Pripyat is being used in the Kickstarter campaign to represent Areal, while assets and concept art that have appeared on the Areal Kickstarter page is allegedly older concept art developed for the STALKER title.

Now in the latest update from Areal's campaign West Games is pointing a finger at some journalists for "completely one-sided and subjective" coverage of the studio, while accusing Forbes' online component of "lax editorial standards because of their recent sale to a Hong Kong based company" following critical coverage from the publication. A full statement can be found here.

West Games' recently stated in a campaign update that Russian president Vladimir Putin allegedly emailed the game studio about access to the game's alpha. A copy can be viewed here, while its translation is available on the game's Kickstarter page.

Areal has already met its Kickstarter goal with $64,391 reached of its original $50,000 funding goal, as of press time.