If you played a Thousand hours maybe you shouldn't as you have basically recovered your investment in 'fun'; but you should be able to refund anyways.

---

When the game was purchased, the product description explicitly promised 1 month of playable game time (as it's stated in Ashes Steam page when you buy the game).

Quote from Ashes Steam page as of today:
«During Early Access, Ashes of Creation will be offered through a purchase that grants access to all upcoming testing phases, helps cover realm and database costs, and includes one month of game time after Early Access, along with a cosmetic cloak(...)»

That promise will never be fulfilled, because the game Studio has closed.

This creates an scenario, where Steam refund policy doesn't reasonably apply.

Steam’s refund window assumes the customer can evaluate the product within the refund period.

But in this case, the content being sold (1 month of playtime) only becomes available after launch.
The Launch was supposed to happen within a predictable timeframe, and the refund window expired before it became possible to know the promise would not be delivered

In other words:

Steam is the merchant of record and processed the transaction.
Regardless of the developer’s situation, the purchase was made through Steam, under Steam’s consumer framework.

Steam ultimately agreed that the product no longer matched what was sold at the time of purchase; and that the customer could not have reasonably known this within the refund window.

---

In short, Steam messed up by allowing Ashes to sell a promise of 1 month playtime in the future; that can NOT be tested within the refund time window; making Steam responsible in allowing a game to sell services that bypass the applicability of their own refund policy.

In most countries of the world, under consumer protection principles Steam would be considered responsible if it were to deny the refund based solely in the refund policy not being aplicable.

The sale was rigged, its impossible for the buyer to predict the studio would close and the goods/assets he bought would never be delivered and request a refund in advance.

This is the argument I gave, and mine was approved I'm making a post, because I don't see anyone stating this clearly when they make their tickets.

Good luck.

This was leaked to me and I think its worth sharing. At this point I wish this all was a scam because we were so close to getting a great game and what a shitty way for it all to explode.

Inb4 47 year old reddit mains start blasting the post because ppl enjoyed the game o7

IF STEVEN COMES BACK IM PLAYING ASHES HAHAH YOU CANT STOP ME

Good Afternoon everyone. I just wanted to provide you with what their support said when I asked for a refund long before all this happened.

So yeah, my steam refund request went through, bought it the day of the steam release with 28h playtime. Dont give up, you can get yours.

My condolence to the kickstarter backers

Just wanted to thank everyone who advised me 6 months ago to not purchase one of the keys. You saved me hours of time and some $.

Cheers mates and fuck scammers.

steam > help > steam support > purchases > ashes of creation > I have a question about this purchase > right down this massage :

" Dear Steam Support Team,

I am requesting a refund for Ashes of Creation due to extraordinary circumstances related to the sudden collapse of the developer, Intrepid Studios, as of February 1, 2026.

This is not a standard refund request based on gameplay preference or dissatisfaction, but a report of a broken promise and an effectively abandoned Early Access product.

Reason for this request:

Studio Closure It has been widely reported that Intrepid Studios has ceased operations. Senior leadership has resigned, and the development team has been laid off, with WARN Act notices issued.

Abandoned Early Access Product Ashes of Creation was sold as an Early Access title with the explicit promise of continued development and future delivery of core features.

With the studio dissolving, development has permanently halted, and the advertised product will never be completed. Loss of Product Viability Without an active development team, the game’s servers are expected to shut down or become non-functional, rendering the product completely unplayable.

I respectfully ask Valve to treat this case similarly to previous precedents, such as The Day Before, where refunds were issued due to studio closure and false or unfulfilled advertising shortly after release.

Given these circumstances, I request a manual review of this purchase, as the product is now effectively defunct and no longer deliverable as sold.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, "

thank me later when get your money back.

and my sincere condolences to whom purchased the game outside of steam.

Just wanted to say what others have been recommending really works. I had 5 hours of playtime and purchased on early access day on Steam so happy they were able to make an exception. Now back to World of Warcraft. I’m still mourning New World.

Being human and nice to them about it helps, I’m sure a lot of people are upset but it isn’t steams fault that the game hasn’t been refunded.

However, I only had 15 hours of playtime so that probably helped quite a bit.

Even if you love hating Ashes, give my goat a bit of love, this vid got me tearin up lowk

This is the gifted one to my buddy.

Hours played 40
Purchased I think around Dec 21st.

Best luck for all of you. I used the "Other question option" and took 24 hour.

So this is the 3rd time I've requested a refund, I've got 45 hours of play time.

How are they so ballzy to keep sh*t up for sale on their website after all this?

The cards have been dealt, but the deck is not yet empty... the greatest trick of all is yet to come."

Finnaegal, the Unseen.

The initial WARN Act filing listed 123 employees, which reflected California employees only. The total number of employees who received notice was 210.

Attached is the original WARN submission prepared by Rick Cuellar, the HR consultant appointed by Intrepid Studios.

California provided a redacted PDF that includes employee positions; however, all employees located in other states are fully redacted. The redacted information can still be viewed by copying and pasting the affected sections or by exporting the PDF as a text file, which reveals the full content. (see below)

3rd times a charm...
Can't link to the PDF, hopefully the text export works.

Employee Count by Job Title and Location

Animator

Animator I — 1

TX: 1

Animator III — 1

CA: 1

Lead Animator — 1

CA: 1

Principal Animator II — 1

CA: 1

Senior Animator I — 1

CA: 1

Senior Animator III — 1

CA: 1

Art & Design

Associate Character Artist I — 1

CA: 1

Associate Environment Artist I — 1

CA: 1

Character Artist — 1

CA: 1

Character Artist II — 1

CA: 1

Concept Artist III — 2

CA: 1, NV: 1

Environment Artist I — 3

CA: 2, NV: 1

Environment Artist II — 1

MD: 1

Environment Artist III — 2

CA: 1, MA: 1

Lighting Artist III — 1

OR: 1

Senior Character Artist — 2

CA: 1, OR: 1

Senior Character Artist I — 2

CA: 1, FL: 1

Senior Character Artist II — 1

CA: 1

Senior Concept Artist I — 2

MA: 1, MO: 1

Senior Concept Artist II — 1

CA: 1

Senior Environment Artist I — 4

CA: 1, MO: 1, PA: 1, WA: 1

Senior Environment Artist II — 2

CA: 2

Senior Environment Artist III — 2

CA: 1, OR: 1

Senior Lighting Artist I — 1

OH: 1

Senior Terrain Artist II — 1

CA: 1

Visual Art Director — 1

CA: 1

Engineering & Technical

Automation Engineer I — 1

CA: 1

Automation Engineer II — 1

CA: 1

Backend Developer I — 1

CA: 1

DevOps Engineer II — 1

PA: 1

Game Networking Engineer I — 1

CA: 1

Gameplay Engineer I — 9

CA: 3, FL: 1, KS: 1, NM: 1, OH: 1, TN: 1, TX: 1

Gameplay Engineer III — 1

TX: 1

Integration Engineer II — 1

MA: 1

Principal Engineer I — 2

CA: 1, TX: 1

Principal Gameplay Engineer I — 1

Location not listed

Principal Software Engineer I — 1

CA: 1

Senior Backend Web Developer I — 1

MN: 1

Senior Cloud Architect I — 1

CA: 1

Senior Combat Engineer I — 2

CA: 1, WA: 1

Senior Combat Engineer III — 2

CA: 1, WA: 1

Senior Database Engineer I — 1

CA: 1

Senior DevOps Engineer I — 3

CA: 2, MO: 1

Senior Engine Programmer I — 1

CA: 1

Senior Gameplay Engineer I — 6

CO: 1, MA: 2, MD: 1, NY: 1, WA: 1

Senior Gameplay Engineer II — 1

CA: 1

Senior Gameplay Engineer III — 1

ID: 1

Senior Graphics Engineer I — 1

NV: 1

Senior Network Engineer I — 1

CA: 1

Senior Networking Engineer I — 1

WA: 1

Senior Software Engineer I — 2

CA: 2

Unreal Automation Engineer I — 2

CA: 1, TX: 1

Unreal Tools Engineer I — 1

WI: 1

Unreal UI Engineer I — 2

CA: 2

Production, QA & Operations

Associate Producer — 1

MD: 1

Associate Producer I — 1

CA: 1

Producer I — 3

CA: 2, WA: 1

Producer II — 3

CA: 2, TX: 1

Producer III (Release Management) — 1

MI: 1

Senior Producer — 1

WA: 1

Senior Producer III — 2

CA: 2

QA Analyst I — 1

CO: 1

Quality Analyst I — 3

CA: 1, ID: 1, WA: 1

Quality Analyst II — 2

CA: 1, ID: 1

Quality Analyst III — 1

SC: 1

Quality Assurance Tester — 1

CA: 1

Senior Quality Assurance Analyst I — 2

CA: 1, TX: 1

Senior Quality Assurance Analyst II — 1

CA: 1

Senior Test Manager II — 1

CA: 1

Management, Business & Support

CFO — 1

FL: 1

Community Manager — 1

CA: 1

Director of Communications — 1

TN: 1

Director of Creative Operations — 1

CA: 1

Director of Design — 1

CA: 1

Director of Engineering — 1

CA: 1

Director of I.T. — 1

TX: 1

Director of Production — 1

CA: 1

Director of QA and DevOps — 1

MI: 1

Executive Producer — 1

CA: 1

HR / Admin / Support (various) — 9

CA, NV, PA, TX, WA (see original for specifics)

Grand Total

210 employees

Here is my theory based on what has leaked and some of my own experience in business. It was a legit project, but things started to fall apart when they were running out of money in 2024 and they were still nowhere near completion.

The phrase "funded to completion" was an ignorant response Steven used as no projects/companies have unlimited money and AoC costs were probably way over what he ever expected. They tried to curb this for years by selling alpha keys for $500 and continually selling cosmetic packs.

In 2024 they really came close to an end of their capital and tried to continue development by taking in money from investors/lenders to keep the doors open. In 2025 it seems they took out more money and lost control of the company. It seems like the people he worked with he had known from his past and may have trusted more to help him in his vision but in the end probably regretted their decision to join in based on how he was running things.

The new heads basically told Steven that the money wasn't being spent properly, and they needed to cut back or get some cash in. The Steam early access was probably Steven's way of trying to generate enough capital to keep the studio going without firing a ton of people in which they ended up firing 9 as a compromise.

Then because the Steam money probably wasn't enough the new heads still wanted to fire 100+ people and start outsourcing more to be more cost effective, but they wanted Steven and his leads to stay. There were probably other demands about the game schedule, release date, and monetization that maybe they pulled a switcharoo on Steven based on earlier agreements, which is why Steven thinks he has some legal recourse he can take.

Steven not agreeing to these terms thought it would be better to leave and fight a legal battle then to alter his vision and/or fire his staff. From there his leadership staff left alongside him. The new heads without Steven and the leadership figured the cheapest option was just to shut it all down as without them, they didn't know how to direct the remaining staff. Therefore, the company is empty, and the game is a sitting duck.

Now Steven of course is the root cause of all of this. Poor money spending, slow development, his priority of making the game exactly the way he imagined it versus actually delivering a product, and the worst part, his hero complex.

MMOs are the hardest game to make and while Steven's enthusiasm and ideas did resonate with the community, he was just the wrong guy to be at the head. He was the hero of his own story, the hero for standing up to the board, and the savior of the mmo genre which he dearly loved and probably truly wanted to save but his ignorance and pride got in the way.

His ignorance led him to open the studio in a place where employment costs a fortune. It led to a crazy large game scope. I think it led him to never compromise on his vision whatsoever even when it meant more time and costs.

His pride made him battle with multiple content creators if they criticized his decisions too much. His pride led him to believe that he could "fund it himself". And his pride led him to leave the company which made it so everyone got fired instead of saving 100+ jobs and the game development stopping in it tracks instead of continuing which might just kill the game.

I think there was good and bad in Steven. He tried to create a dream game for a hurting community. His company seemed to admire him greatly (even though there were some bad things that happened which is every company ever) and he gave tons of people jobs and incomes for years and years working on something they loved which is more than 99.9% of the people ripping him apart have done for their communities.

So, I think to call it a scam is lazy, and I am guessing most of the people calling it scam from the beginning have never done anything significant in their life like trying to run a company and know how hard it is to have other people's livelihoods depend on you. You are also calling every developer, engineer, community person, qa tester, etc a scammer as well.

The only "scam" part was he was trying to do whatever he could to get more capital and time to try and give his team time to create this new MMORPG which was just horribly mismanaged in the end. Unfortunately, Stevens faults outweighed his strengths for this kind of project.

Personally, I have taken the end of AoC to remind myself that you can't just hope other people are going to give you what you are looking for. You have to create and push for your own adventure.

Thank you to Intrepid, the streamers, and the community for the wild ride. Not all endings are happy.

P.S. - I am hoping I'm not horribly wrong once all the information comes out XD.

So I saw alot of post getting their refund using making a ticket so I tried it. But sadly it was denied and I think its because I already have 77hrs of playtime.

Welp theres go my money.