Chained Echoes: Matthias Linda is Suing First Press Games

Seven years ago, Matthias Linda kickstarted development costs for his massive JRPG Chained Echoes, which would eventually release three years later, at the end of 2022 (We interviewed him then, in German, and saw him successfully give back the funding loan he had received at gamescom 2023). One of the stretch goals of the campaign were physical game editions, which Linda aimed to ship in cooperation with First Press Games, games distributor from Erkrath in Northrhine-Westfalia.

Linda: "Preparing a Lawsuit"

Now, Linda has announced that he is terminating the business relationship with First Press Games, and will seek legal measures against them. 

Linda claims in an update for the Kickstarter backers: “It’s been a bit over 2 years since the physical copies were supposed to be released by First Press Games and so far in 2026 nothing has arrived except the regular Playstation 4 edition. Because of that I had to make a decision:

I am terminating my business relationship with FPG and I am preparing a lawsuit.

This decision wasn’t easy and came after careful consideration. Please understand that for legal reasons I can not go into further details.”

He says he aims to switch to a different physical distributor for those who want to wait further, but offers refunds for anyone who wants to get their money for the physical edition back. Additional information on the refunds can be found in Linda’s Kickstarter update.

First Press Games: "Continued Issues" Since Early 2025

First Press Games themselves have as of yet not commented on the lawsuit, but blog posts made in December 2025 and January 2026 make public that the distributor has fallen on hard times: "The year 2025 has been an exceptionally challenging one for our company.

On the production side, several projects were brought to a temporary halt due to severe problems with our new business partners. Due to bankrupties and other issues with the old manufacturers, a fact that we have mentioned before several times here, we were forced to begin our work from scratch with multiple new partners on several levels and reinitiate production.

Internally, we also faced serious difficulties. Multiple staff members responsible for customer support, developer relations, and shipping left the company in succession. Although we made continuous efforts to recruit replacements, retention was not always successful, resulting in a persistent shortage of personnel", the company wrote in December. Since January, FPG has gradually rebuilt their team, restarted their shipping operation and addresses other issues that began "in early spring" of 2025, they claim in their New Year update.