Including big name titles like Crash 4: It's About Time and Godfall, Sony's latest State of Play event highlighted a number of smaller titles coming to the PlayStation 4 and PS5. One of those titles was the stylish action title Aeon Must Die, a game promising beat-em-up style gameplay with tactical fighting and an RPG alignment system that tracks how players behave. Not long after the game was revealed, shocking allegations from former developers appeared online.
A third party upload of the Aeon Must Die announcement trailer appeared on YouTube along with a link to a lengthier DropBox post from eight members of the former creative team at Limestone Games. The video description alleges major accusations against their former employer. The developers claim that the game was stolen from them and the trailer everyone saw at State of Play was created with abuse, manipulation, and theft.
In June, eight members of the Aeon Must Die team resigned from the Estonia based studio. They claim that the decision to leave was based around several factors including poor working conditions, lack of payment, endless crunch, manipulation, and harassment. Limestone CEO Yaroslav Lyssenko was also mentioned, accused of sending threatening letters and unlawfully firing everyone prior to the agreed termination date. The documents also claim that attempts to contact publisher Focus Home Interactive for help were also dismissed.
While this is no doubt a very messy situation, the group reveals they're receiving legal council but ultimately felt that the truth needed to be put out for the public. These complaints appear to be led by the former Limestone CCO, Aleksei Nehoroshkin, someone who also helped co-found the studio in 2016. His statement reveal little support from Lyssenko which led to major workload issues and crunch. Lyssenko is also accused to going behind the team's back to work with an investor to become the studios only board member to assume total control over the IP.
At this point in time, neither Limestone Games or Focus Home Interactive have made a statement on these accusations.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to this game going forward and whether or not the story from the other side of this conflict ever comes out. It's an unfortunate revelation for such a unique looking title, but with all of the abuse allegations, workplace toxicity, and crunch culture that has come out over the past 6 months, accusations like this need to be taken seriously.
Aeon Must Die is currently in development for PS4.
Source: Erkki Poots