Sony held an event yesterday for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5: the State of Play. After the presentation, it is now said: One of the games shown there, Aeon Must Die!, was stolen from the actual developers. The creative people feel betrayed by the studio head and abandoned by the publisher.
Last night, Sony showcased some new games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 at an event. Most of these were rather second-tier games. We have already covered the multiplayer titles shown, such as Hood, Godfall, or Genshin Impact on MeinMMO last night.
However, a single-player title is now causing a stir after the show: Aeon Must Die! is in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
What type of game is Aeon Must Die? Aeon Must Die! is a fast-paced “beat ’em up” fighting game set in a science fiction universe.
The basic idea of Aeon Must Die is (via playstation):
- Aeon is a kind of parasite that enters into a symbiosis with a host
- The player controls the host of Aeon, who must defend against being completely taken over by the symbiont (similar to Peter Parker and Venom)
- Aeon heats up when the player attacks normally, and cools down when special attacks are used
- The more times the player dies, the stronger the control Aeon exerts. It influences the player’s decisions when they choose to rise again and fight at the spot where they failed
- If a player decides to remain dead, they restart the adventure from the beginning but retain all upgrades and progress they have unlocked
The game is set to release in 2021 for PlayStation 4.
Allegedly Power Struggles and Terrible Conditions at the Studio
This is now the scandal: A group of developers spoke out after the presentation and accused the development studio of Aeon Must Die!, the Estonian Limestone Games, of several things. This occurred through an info drop on “Dropbox”, where the accusations were published (via dropbox):
- It is said that the developers suffered at Limestone Games under terrible working conditions and a dreadful boss, had to work many overtime hours, and in some cases were not paid for it
- They reportedly left the studio in June because they suffered from “endless crunch, harassment, abuse, corruption, and manipulation”
- The founder and creative director left the studio with them, but “covertly” had the rights to the brand taken from him
- After that, they tried to reach the publisher, Focus Home Interactive, to explain their situation and whether they could finish the game under humane conditions – but no help came
- Instead, the publisher released the trailer as planned and proceeded with the Sony event because it was such a strong “marketing push” for the game
Further allegations indicate that there was likely a conflict at the management level in the studio. The CEO of the company, Yaroslav Lyssenko, allegedly ousted co-founder Aleksei Nehoroshkin from the leadership of the company by bringing in a new major investor while Nehoroshkin focused on the development of Aeon Must Die!
At the moment, we only know one side of the story. Despite multiple requests from US outlets, there is currently no known statement from the publisher.
Publisher of Aeon Must Die is Taking the Accusations Seriously
Update 21:05: Now there is a statement from the publisher (via twitter):
- They are informed that there are serious allegations from developers who worked on Aeon Must Die
- These allegations are directed against Limestone, the direct employer of the developers
- As the publisher of the video game, Focus Home Interactive will now thoroughly review these allegations and draw the necessary conclusions. If the allegations are correct, they will take appropriate measures.
- They will not provide further comments until they have a complete overview of the situation
“Crunch” is what it’s called when a team puts in overtime to meet a tight schedule. The gaming industry has long been known for a “crunch” culture, where such inhumanly hard work is somehow part of the deal, and employees are often only in the office for weeks and months, barely seeing friends and family.
The worst excesses occurred in South Korea, where a mobile game was developed so quickly and harshly that a developer died while working on it:
Crunch Time: Young Developer Works Himself to Death – 89 Hour Work Week
