Slick sci-fi beat-‘em-up Aeon Must Die was one of the standouts during yesterday’s State of Play livestream, but the release has been mired in controversy ever since. An enormous catalogue of conversations, emails, and letters have been uploaded to Dropbox, after former employees of developer Limestone Games claim they were severely mistreated.
The accusations are wide-spread and in-depth, with the team citing “unbearable work conditions with endless crunch, harassment, abuse, corruption, and manipulation”. The claims add that the team quit late last month, and that the reveal trailer was stolen. “People who have worked on every shot of this are no longer with the company holding IP rights,” the description of a YouTube video claims. “Some were not even paid for their work. This trailer has a pending conflict of IP. The real IP for the game was stolen from the creators via foul play.”
The aforementioned Dropbox includes a statement from former creative director Aleksei Nehoroshkin, who helped establish the studio in 2016. He alleges that chief executive Yaroslav Lyssenko failed to correctly pay staff and overworked the team. Throughout all this, Nehoroshkin continues that Lyssenko was plotting with another investor to take control of the studio and its intellectual property.
Apparently, all of these issues were relayed to publisher Focus Home Interactive, but these were either ignored or relayed back to Lyssenko himself. The company has since released a statement, stressing that it will carefully investigate the accusations but that “no further comment will be shared until we have a clearer and complete view on this matter”.
[source youtube.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 12
When this news broke earlier today it was all very strange. This seems above and beyond the disgruntled employee we've seen lately and on a whole other level...
Most corporations have an I.P. clause built into their employment contract. Post-it (Sticky) Notes...created by a 3M employee who was required to give them the I.P. rights. Apple...IBM had a shot at the home personal computer market from the outset, but passed when they didn't see a market. Then the two Steves used the tech they developed with IBM parts and formed Apple and the rest is history.
A hostile work environment does not equal I.P. theft. That type of hyperbole only erodes credibility.
Pretty crazy stuff, basically the only person that will profit from this game is the man who sat on his arse and made life miserable for the devs.
What? This was probably the coolest announcement too 😕 Too bad.
Sounds like someone pissing and moaning and trying to ruin the head guys rep.
This is not a good look for the publisher, I think sony should freeze their involment with this game until the dispute is done.
Also while the trailer and music is pretty good, I still don't understand what type of games is this, is it 2D fighting, metroidvania (I hope so), or just 2D action game.
@SimonB You mean the entire team that made the game? Is not one or two people moaning, is literally every single person that worked on the game.
It seems the "staff" worked on the game on the proviso that there would be profit sharing etc. and it looks like until that happens they all retain rights to their work, so the studio has no IP or claims to the staffs work... and it seems to be all of the staff Vs one guy, who sounds like a really nice guy.
@nessisonett Right! Screw that guy. As ambitious and great looking as this title appears....I can't support crappy practices like this. I just can't.
This and Godfall where my highlights from yesterday's State of Play. Shame about everything that has come to light since the reveal. Hopeful that things get resolved and situated and everyone can talk about the game as opposed to the allegations.
@thefirst
A+
@Juanalf Makes little difference to me, you see one accusation you see them all. I've gotten desensitized to it since that card gets played so many times with these fart huffers.
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