Okay, so Ashes of Creation, that old-school MMORPG everyone was hyped about? It’s basically fallen apart. After years of development, they finally put out an alpha on Steam, but this weekend it totally imploded. It sounds like the whole team at Intrepid Studios either quit or got laid off. Seriously, just two days ago they were still posting updates and talking about future plans for the game, and now… nothing. It’s a huge bummer.
Steven Sharif, the founder and creative director of the game AoC, recently revealed on Discord that he was forced to resign because he lost control of the company. This led to a mass exodus of staff and ultimately, the layoff of everyone who remained.
Is Ashes of Creation Shutting Down?
After nearly ten years in development, it’s virtually certain that Ashes of Creation, the highly anticipated, classic-style MMORPG, will be cancelled. Steven Sharif, the founder of the development company, announced this on the game’s Discord server, stating:
I’m speaking personally, not as a representative of the company, and can share a little bit about what’s happening.
I lost control of the company, and the Board started making decisions I couldn’t support from an ethical standpoint. Because of this, I decided to resign as a form of protest, rather than be associated with choices I disagreed with.
After I left the company, many members of the leadership team also resigned. As a result, the Board of Directors decided to issue WARN Act notices and carry out a large-scale layoff.
Because of current legal and internal reviews, I’m unable to share more specifics right now. However, I want to say that the developers and staff involved acted honestly and with good intentions, and they don’t deserve the current uncertainty. I’m very disappointed with how things have unfolded.
Players on the Steam forums are calling the situation a ‘pump and dump’ scheme, and some are even discussing the possibility of filing a class action lawsuit to get their money back.
Putting that into practice may be difficult. A company memo shared online revealed that the entire plant will be closing permanently, impacting all jobs. As a result, the scheduled February 1st payroll will not be processed due to the company’s financial difficulties.
It appears the highly anticipated MMO, Ashes of Creation, is likely shutting down. This follows the unexpected departure of the game’s director, Steven Sharif. The situation developed after further…
— N_Tys (@N_Tys26) February 1, 2026
This means employees who received the WARN notice won’t be paid, and that will likely lead to lawsuits about lost wages.
You can still buy Ashes of Creation on Steam for £41.99 ($49.99) at the moment. Data from SteamDB suggests around 319,000 people have already purchased the game, totaling approximately $14 million in sales.
Customers who purchased this game when it was first released are understandably upset that it’s been discontinued after only a month and will likely be asking for refunds or some other form of compensation.
Well-known online creator ‘Pirate Software’ spoke about the issue on social media, offering some support for the developer involved.
Honestly, things weren’t bad at all back then. Development was going smoothly, and the parts of the game he was talking about weren’t these empty, boring spaces like he made them sound. It wasn’t until the final 6-8 months that everything really started to go wrong and the project began to fall apart.
— Pirate Software (@PirateSoftware) February 1, 2026
The situation became even more surprising when fans discovered official registration details for Intrepid Studios. These records confirmed that Steven Sharif was the only member of the Board of Directors. The filing, dated December 30, 2025, also showed that Sharif is the CEO, and John Moore is the CFO.
Sharif is the only named director on the Board, per the document.
People spotted a concerning detail in the game’s Kickstarter campaign: backers would get a full refund if the game wasn’t released on Steam. The game did launch on Steam, meaning that promise was kept. Seems convenient, doesn’t it?
Grant Taylor-Hill
Grant first fell in love with gaming on the Amstrad CPC back in 1996. Since then, he’s become a skilled gamer across many platforms, with a strong passion for both video games and the exciting world of esports.
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2026-02-01 11:20