Ashes of Creation CEO Breaks Silence
The Kickstarter-backed MMORPG project Ashes of Creation has been in the news in recent weeks due to a serious crisis. The game’s removal from the Steam store, layoffs within the development team, and allegations involving investors have left the project’s future uncertain. While all this controversy continued, Steven Sharif, the founder and former CEO of Intrepid Studios, the game’s developer, finally broke his silence and made a comprehensive statement about the events.
The Ashes of Creation Crisis Taken to Court
Steven Sharif’s statement, shared on the game’s official Discord server, was quite lengthy. Sharif stated that his reason for remaining silent until now wasn’t that he had nothing to say, but that he was waiting for the true nature of the events to be revealed in court. According to him, the crisis is not just an internal company dispute; it’s also a serious struggle for control of the company.
Sharif specifically targeted the company’s board of directors. In his statement, he alleged that the board made illegal moves to seize Intrepid Studios’ assets, particularly the intellectual property rights to Ashes of Creation. According to Sharif, this process involved a deliberate attempt to create a public perception that would hold them responsible for the company’s downfall, and therefore he believed the matter should be resolved in court, not on social media.
The former CEO also announced that they had achieved a significant interim ruling in the case. A US federal court issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Intrepid Studios board of directors and related companies from using or distributing trade secrets related to Ashes of Creation. This ruling specifically protects the game’s source code and other technical assets, preventing their uncontrolled use as the legal process progresses.
In conclusion, Sharif emphasized that the Ashes of Creation project was not merely a company product. He stated that it was the result of the hard work of hundreds of developers and the support of millions of players who had been waiting for the game for years. Therefore, Sharif stated that he would not allow the future of the game to be shaped according to the interests of a few individuals, and that the entire process from now on would be clarified in court.
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