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Bad Times For Ashes of Creation

Darchaos

Darchaos

Member
Apparently everyone on Intrepid Studios will get fired on 2026-02-02 and Ashes of Creation is in Limbo. This is a thread from the ashes of creation reddit where a pic of a goodbye notice from Margaret, Director of Communications for Intrepid Studios and is one of the 2 frontfigures together with Steven himself as i understand it



And Steven himself has apparently receded according to this clip: https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkxe9were941Nh9kWgsNFWy--c-_UgYeyRu

Post from Discord from Steven himself:

Its not many weeks ago that they put up Ashes Of Creation on steam in Early Access.

More to come i guess!
 
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Oooh this is probably what KiraTV was hinting about last night on his video.

He said someone had reached out to him and said something big, though he didn't state what as he was hoping for others to step forward and confirm.

I always presumed Steven had control over the company. Be interesting to know who is on the board.

The end of another MMO I guess.
 
Extremely disappointed. Ranger looked fun and I have had the itch for a new mmo for ages now. I want something fresh that is not a mmo that is 10+ years old at this point. Sucks for everyone losing their job.
 
I haven't been following this game at all but from my quick research, it seems to have a reputation similar to that of Star Citizen, where many (most?) people were convinced it was a scam. Well, it seems like they may have been right...

 
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Always felt like a project that was trying to do too much at once and putting big focus on complex end game stuff before nailing a core down.

From what I heard of the release was that it didn't have enough content added to reach the end game which meant people had to grind. That probably hurt them a lot.
 
I might be a big dumdum, so can someone help make logic of this?

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falconhoof said:
I might be a big dumdum, so can someone help make logic of this?

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Sounds to me the studio ran out of money and the ultimate decision was to shut it all down. Steve didnt want his name part of it making him look like one of the bad guys, so he left. The BoD laid off everyone anyway and now Steve can come back and say it wasnt his decision making him look good.
 
Sad for them, but not surprised. Writing was on the wall from day one of the kickstarter, the concept simply doesn't appeal to broad audiences. And MMO development is notoriously difficult and expensive.

Props to them for actually shipping something though, more than most kickstarter MMO projects can claim.
 
Too bad there might be some people who dont know about them shutting down because the game is still being sold Early Access on Steam right now for $65 CAD.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Sounds to me the studio ran out of money and the ultimate decision was to shut it all down. Steve didnt want his name part of it making him look like one of the bad guys, so he left. The BoD laid off everyone anyway and now Steve can come back and say it wasnt his decision making him look good.
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That's the part I'm trying to understand. Unless I'm not reading the document right it looked like Steven was the board member. That's the legal filing for the company. Directors listed: Steven.
 
falconhoof said:
That's the part I'm trying to understand. Unless I'm not reading the document right it looked like Steven was the board member. That's the legal filing for the company. Directors listed: Steven.
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I'm not sure myself either. Do you have a full snippet of the entire document? Or which website you got it from?
 
Game was destined for failure once everyone realized it was a scam game like star citizen but far less successful in the grift.
 
TheChadOfGaming said:
WoW will rule forever
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WoW legitimately altered the MMORPG landscape.

I was playing UO and EQ at the time and its release was absolutely detrimental to the player base of these older games (and every other MMO at that time I imagine). Guilds fell apart and loads of people eventually left to play WoW. At the time it was such a cultural phenomenon in gaming and to a small niche genre like the MMO.

WoW's always been the king and its failure will always be because of Blizzard, not any other MMO.

Ashes of Creation looked interesting, a shame decent MMO's struggle to ever launch.
 
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MMORPGs are massively expensive and too risky now. Way too many F2P games not leaving enough of a potential userbase.

Danny Dudekisser said:
I guess they were the ashes of their creation.
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Punished Miku said:
Name was definitely on point
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Lol

falconhoof said:
That's the part I'm trying to understand. Unless I'm not reading the document right it looked like Steven was the board member. That's the legal filing for the company. Directors listed: Steven.
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Maybe he turns into several people at night. His split personalities fired everyone.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
I'm not sure myself either. Do you have a full snippet of the entire document? Or which website you got it from?
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EDIT: Ok, it's an AI answer, but ChatGPT tells me that the board of directors do not need to be fully named on this document unless there are no officers listed. So there could be a private board pulling the strings.


Can find it here:

Entity number: 3788290

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The game was on Kickstarter, so the guy is trying to avoid any lawsuits by saying it's out of his control and he did everything he could in good faith. If you've seen enough Kickstarter projects fail you can see the red flags.
 
My best friend begged me to buy into this game way back like 2 years ago? So we've been following the news and the monthly livestreams and HOLY SHIT this is crazy!!!

Steven talked SOOO much big shit against all the haters and about how they aren't out of money and too bad if the game isn't for you they're making his perfect vision that ONLY HE HAS FINAL SAY ON, or atleast that's how he painted it.

Like I'm not a huge mmo player so I knew the game would never be "good" in my eyes but this is batshit levels of dumpster fire
 
Interesting thought there



The game was clearly not ready for a Steam release, but because it did release it gives them right to say they launched the product and therefore fulfilled their promise.
 
Too bad, I had some hopes that maybe one of these crowd-funded MMOs could work, but the genre has always been so expensive with long production cycles to make all the content + ways to keep pumping out more regularly.
 
falconhoof said:
Interesting thought there



The game was clearly not ready for a Steam release, but because it did release it gives them right to say they launched the product and therefore fulfilled their promise.
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LOL. Gotcha gamers. No wonder they dumped it on Steam in December. And an Early Access launch probably counts as a launch even if it's not the final release version.

Never fund any KS of GoFundMe trash. Let the guinia pigs fund it and wait for the final release.

You wouldnt trust a flea market guy with $50 for years to find a product would you? Of course not. Dont do it with KS stuff.
 
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Ive always followed the games progress during the years, not everything but to know what happens.

Never pushed the "buy button" though, to see it end like this is sad but not totaly suprising. The Early acces listing on steam a couple of weeks ago just feels as a desperate attempt for a last paycheck in hindsight.
 
The guy is obviously lying and knew that funds were running out, hence the Steam release.

He also always said that they don't have any "Corpo overlords" hanging over their heads, so there is no "board of directors".

No one is buying this shit.
 
This game turned out to be another scam. Who would've thought. It was way too ambitious from the start. They recently released on steam to cash grab one last time even tho they already knew whats going to happen. Fuck people like this
 
Just like most modern MMOs - always overhyped always overly ambitious, always asking for funding, always has too many gameplay mechanics that try to be almost genre instead of focusing on one or two really good core mechanics and then stays in development hell and alpha phases until they milk everyone dry and then the game dies because it's never properly feature complete let alone polished. Kind of glad this thing is dying off, everyone was hyping it like it was the second coming of Christ lol.
 
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Faltherion said:
Just like most modern MMOs - always overhyped always overly ambitious, always asking for funding, always has too many gameplay mechanics that try to be almost genre instead of focusing on one or two really good core mechanics and then stays in development hell and alpha phases until they milk everyone dry and then the game dies because it's never properly feature complete let alone polished. Kind of glad this thing is dying off, everyone was hyping it like it was the second coming of Christ lol.
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Yep overly ambitious with it's systems while forgetting the most important things which is the game being constantly fun. I tried it and refunded after an hour becauee the gameplay was just meh. Wow had better gameplay 25 yeras ago IMO. So i never even got the see their ambitious systems because they lost me in 60mins.
 
Brakum said:
Yep overly ambitious with it's systems while forgetting the most important things which is the game being constantly fun. I tried it and refunded after an hour becauee the gameplay was just meh. Wow had better gameplay 25 yeras ago IMO. So i never even got the see their ambitious systems because they lost me in 60mins.
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WoW still has better gameplay to this day compared to any other MMOs imo.
 
Faltherion said:
WoW still has better gameplay to this day compared to any other MMOs imo.
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But developers have convinced themselves that modern audiences want more dynamic combat.

I fucking love wows combat. I dont play wow anymore because i dont like everything else but recently fellowship came out in early access, it's basically mythic+: the game. The gameplay is literally just wow and i appreciate it so much. Love the game.

I dont want a dodge button, i want a movement ability that is different for every class. I dont want a sprint button, i dont want to manage stamina etc.
 
Brakum said:
But developers have convinced themselves that modern audiences want more dynamic combat.
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Quite a lot of us do, but a lot of MMO developers can't seem to figure out how to do it properly nor will they receive the necessary funding for such an endeavor in the 2020s and 2030s, so we are where we are today.
 
March Climber said:
Quite a lot of us do, but a lot of MMO developers can't seem to figure out how to do it properly nor will they receive the necessary funding for such an endeavor in the 2020s and 2030s, so we are where we are today.
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Yup. If I want a late 90s early 2000s era tab target combat system, there is no shortage of options on the market. I'm not interested in glancing down at the hotbar constantly to identify when any of my 12-40 abilities are off cooldown so I can brainlessly mash them because encounter design revolves around keeping as close to 100% uptime as possible. I want more direct control on what is happening to my character. Gimme an Elden Ring, a Monster Hunter, or a Dragon's Dogma kind of combat system in a large scale persistent world that rewards player skill expression where the damage you take is a consequence of your own decisions, where choosing when to NOT attack is an active consideration.

Action-based MMOs aren't quite there yet, but they're getting closer to nailing the formula as time goes on. I genuinely think New World was on the cusp of finally getting on the right path after so many years of fumbling, but the plug got pulled. A shame, honestly. I was having more fun with the Nighthaven release than I had in any other MMO in years.

Watching Guild Wars 3 and Riot's untitled Runeterra MMO closely. Both titles are doing active hiring right now as other projects are shutting down, so hope remains. It helps that Arenanet is still pulling in money via Guild Wars 2's ongoing success, and Riot Games is obviously doing fine.
 
Meicyn said:
Yup. If I want a late 90s early 2000s era tab target combat system, there is no shortage of options on the market. I'm not interested in glancing down at the hotbar constantly to identify when any of my 12-40 abilities are off cooldown so I can brainlessly mash them because encounter design revolves around keeping as close to 100% uptime as possible. I want more direct control on what is happening to my character. Gimme an Elden Ring, a Monster Hunter, or a Dragon's Dogma kind of combat system in a large scale persistent world that rewards player skill expression where the damage you take is a consequence of your own decisions, where choosing when to NOT attack is an active consideration.

Action-based MMOs aren't quite there yet, but they're getting closer to nailing the formula as time goes on. I genuinely think New World was on the cusp of finally getting on the right path after so many years of fumbling, but the plug got pulled. A shame, honestly. I was having more fun with the Nighthaven release than I had in any other MMO in years.

Watching Guild Wars 3 and Riot's untitled Runeterra MMO closely. Both titles are doing active hiring right now as other projects are shutting down, so hope remains. It helps that Arenanet is still pulling in money via Guild Wars 2's ongoing success, and Riot Games is obviously doing fine.
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Exactly, that was literally the cope we had to put up with in the 90s and 2000s when the MMO boom happened.

All of the dev teams would be asked about real-time dynamic combat in Q&A but almost all of them would say something similar to "the tech and internet quality isn't there yet to do so" so MMO fans would just have to sit and wait, deal with what was available, or play the instanced ones that could actually do action, like Vindictus (or to a lesser extent PSO). Does anyone here really think that people wanted to play Champions Online, DC Universe Online, and City of Heroes as a tab/skill bar superhero MMO?

Like you said, games like New World (and to a lesser extent that shooter MMO Defiance) were finally attempting to finally usher in these promises, but now MMOs are a rare genre 20 years later and Defiance is dead and New World is shutting down soon. I think the Dune MMO is the last one unless someone knows of another open world action-MMO that's currently out, and even in that case their own fans are scared of calling it an MMO even though they said 'massively multiplayer online' on the game website's own description.

Also I don't technically count ESO because it was built on a backbone of older MMO tech and you can still hit someone from like 5ft away even though your physical sword didn't touch them. That was the whole reason why single player Elder Scrolls fans were so disappointed by it and why that is such a cloud over the devs' heads to this very day.
 
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