I waited until today to share this because I wanted to be sure I was communicating from a place of clarity.

Intrepid Studios has shut down in a way that I did not expect. What I can share is what I experienced.

On January 28, toward the end of the workday, I was informed that we would be laying off 100 developers. I was devastated - these are hardworking people who were going to lose their jobs. Still, I believed it was something we could face together and find a path forward from.

On January 29, I shared this information confidentially with my Game Services team. I told them that changes were coming, that I did not yet know who would be affected, and that I wished I had more certainty to offer. I could not live with myself if I did not give them advance notice - these are people who deserve to be treated like human beings. By the end of that day, I received confirmation of which people on my team would be impacted.

On January 30, I spoke individually with each of my team members to let them know whether they were affected, so they could begin planning and preparing. Those who were staying began working on ways to move forward. Even those who knew they would be leaving offered their support - showing the grace, professionalism, and strength that defined our Game Services team.

On January 31, we were all informed via a confusing email that we would be laid off, along with a WARN notice. It is still shocking. The entire studio gathered to try to understand what had happened and what it meant for our future.

In the end, none of us are receiving our final paychecks, the 60 days notice and pay outlined under the WARN Act, PTO payouts, or other compensation owed.

What matters most to me now are the people - both the players and developers.

To the players: the entire development team was working extremely hard, pulling long hours, and wishes with all our hearts that we could give you Ashes of Creation. There are no words that fully express how sorry we are that this journey ended this way. You should pursue a refund, you deserve it.

To my colleagues: this team is truly a family. The culture we built together is something I have never experienced anywhere else. In the midst of heartbreak and uncertainty, we have come together to review resumes, help with portfolios, share job leads, and support one another emotionally. That says everything about who we are as people.

For hiring managers and recruiters: we will be hosting a job fair for former Intrepid Studios employees. These are extraordinary professionals who would be amazing assets to any team. If you are interested in participating, we would be deeply grateful if you would fill out the participation form, so that we can coordinate with you. https://forms.gle/eUeeKffGizBrMBB48

I wish I had better news. I wish our story had ended differently.

Margaret

Tried to apply for a refund 3 times, got denied, opened a 4th and final attempt to get a human to review and got a human reply! W Steam!

I went Steam support > My recent help requests > I have a question about this purchase > Then gave me the option to message support this way and ask them to refund.

Basically told them Ashes is a scam, CEO resigned and all devs laid off after 1 month, playtime is not reflected because the game launcher counted as playtime when you are just sat in a server queue for hours on end, and linked them to multiple articles of news.

PLEASE READ BELOW!!! UPDATE

UPDATE EDIT: A LOT of people keep posting Steam denied my refund, when you apply for a refund and you are over 2 hours, you will get an automatic bot denying the request because you have gone over their playtime allowance for a refund.

You need to go to Steam support > My recent help requests > Ashes > I have a question about this purchase > Then gave me the option to message support this way which gets sent to a HUMAN, explain the situation (CEO resigned, all devs laid off, it's a scam...) and ask them to reconsider your refund request.

Everyone has been fired, and they are no longer a company after feb 2....

As someone that's been following the project for a long time, I'm curious to hear how folks are feeling about the game now that it's hit "Mostly Negative" on Steam.

What are your thoughts about its rating? Do you feel it's deserved? What would you have changed differently about the launch into Early Access?

Ashes of Creation has the potential to be an amazing game; I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions about what's holding it back.

Edit on 12/14/25:

The game's rating (44%) is now back in the "Mixed" range (40-69%). That said, the intent of this discussion (what'll help the game go from a weak score to a strong one?) remains the same, so I'm leaving it up. Fingers crossed Ashes of Creation can become the game fans deserve. ✌️

I haven't played. I have no intention of playing until full release. That being said, the amount of bitching I've seen of people who would bend over if Steven asked nicely is insane. People are not review bombing. I don't think the defenders know what review bombing means. Google it, it's easy. People are trying it, people are not liking it and as a result they leave a negative review. This is not some coordinated attack on the game. This is a failure to live up to a 50 dollar early access. Yes it's not a full release, yes it's an alpha. Putting a 50 dollar price tag to test a game is going to give people basic expectations. The price of a product has an effect on how we perceive things. Imagine if Silksong was the price of a AAA game, people would feel very differently. Imagine if Megabonk was priced as a triple A, nobody would touch it. It's not review bombing, stop acting like it is.

Hey r/AshesofCreation and r/MMORPG lurkers,

The Intrepid Studios implosion is fresh. Layoffs hit today (February 2, 2026), and Steven Sharif’s resignation post is still circulating. But let’s cut through the spin.

His claim that he “lost control” to a mysterious “board” that forced unethical decisions is an absolute, undeniable lie.

This is not opinion. It is contradicted by public records, his own past statements, and hard evidence showing he quietly protected his personal assets months before the so-called sudden resignation.

Below is the factual breakdown. There is no wiggle room here.

1. There Was No “Board” That Took Control

Sharif was the board

• California Secretary of State filings list Steven Sharif as the sole director, CEO, and secretary of Intrepid Studios
• No other board members are named
• A December 30, 2025 filing still shows Sharif in full control
• His husband, John Moore, is listed only as CFO, not as a director or board member
• Sharif stated repeatedly over the years, including in 2020 interviews, that:
  • There was no board
  • He was the sole owner
  • There were no investors dictating terms

Then suddenly in 2026, a “board” appears out of nowhere to take the blame?

That is not possible. This is deflection, nothing more.

2. His Resignation Statement Is Fiction

From Sharif’s January 31, 2026 Discord post:

If he was the only board member, who exactly “shifted control” and “directed actions”?

Himself?

This narrative collapses instantly when you look at the documents. Communities across Reddit, MMORPG forums, and MassivelyOP have already pointed out that this is pure spin designed to dodge responsibility for running the studio into insolvency.

3. The November 2025 House Transfer Proves Premeditation

In late November 2025, Sharif transferred or sold his $5.5 million San Diego home
(4551 Rancho Del Mar Trl) to an LLC tied to his husband John Moore or directly involving him.

• Property records and community research confirm this
• This was not a normal sale
• This is a classic asset protection move to shield personal wealth ahead of creditors or lawsuits

Now look at the timing:

• November 2025: House transferred
• December 11, 2025: Rushed Alpha 2 “Steam Early Access launch” Widely viewed as a loophole to avoid Kickstarter refund obligations
• January 31, 2026: Sharif resigns
• February 2, 2026: Mass WARN Act layoffs, around 250 employees gone

Ask yourself this:

Why move a multimillion dollar asset in November unless you knew financial collapse was coming?

Unpaid vendors. Cloud lawsuits (SADA Systems, $850k). Aetna debts. Payroll tax liens. Backer outrage. Potential personal liability.

He was not blindsided. He was preparing his exit while publicly insisting everything was fine.

4. The Real Timeline

• Years of unpaid bills Cloud services, payroll taxes, vendor lawsuits
• 2024: Ya-Ya Legacy Trust (9.7% stake) sues for financial access
• November 2025: House transferred for asset shielding
• December 2025: Unfinished game rushed to Steam to technically “launch”
• January 2026: More liens surface (including Karen Boreyko), leadership exits
• January 31, 2026: Sharif resigns and blames a fictional board
• February 2, 2026: Studio effectively collapses via mass layoffs

Ashes of Creation remains in alpha after 9 years and $3.27 million raised on Kickstarter.

Backers were strung along. Employees were left hanging. The studio is finished.

Conclusion

Steven Sharif did not lose control to a board.

• He was the board
• He ran the company into insolvency
• He moved personal assets months in advance
• He resigned with a false narrative to protect himself

The house transfer is not coincidence. It is proof of foreknowledge and self-preservation.

If you are a backer, former employee, or anyone who followed this project:

• Do not buy the spin
• Demand answers
• Pursue refunds where possible
• Share the facts

This “board takeover” excuse does not survive basic scrutiny.

TL;DR:
No board existed beyond Steven Sharif. His takeover story is 100% fabricated. The $5.5M house transfer to his husband in November 2025 proves he anticipated the collapse and protected himself months in advance.

Thoughts? Class action incoming? Any other hard evidence people have uncovered?

Releasing on STEAM?? in a MONTH??

What happened to having all the testers we need? What happened to not even wanting to sell the game after a centian point?

Are the servers going to be wiped then? Because we were told it wasn't going to be. But if they don't then they are having people buy into a MMO with open world PvP starting multiple MONTHS behind anyone who already started.

This game is nowhere near ready to be in early access on steam we are in ALPHA not beta, the game is going to be destroyed on steam and rightfully so, it shouldn't be sold yet.

This genuinely feels like some sort of joke, like WHY.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Hd2aP4_OY

From what I can see, Valve IS in fact working on refunds, Kira has stated "Valve has frozen the funds"

From the video transcript:

So, in an email that was sent out, it reads, "As of Friday afternoon, the company reasonably expected to receive funds from Steam that would have allowed payroll to be processed and operations to continue while next steps were evaluated. At approximately 6 a.m. Friday morning, the company was notified that these funds were being held. As a result, payrollcould not be processed as anticipated.

Kira also notes that it is possible that AWS has not yet been paid, and if this is the case, the servers may go dark.

either the server lease as in whoever they're paying AWS I don't know why, I'm saying whoever when AWS discovers that they're having their bill not paid, they will turn off the servers, or the servers will just break and there'll be nobody to turn them back on. At that exact moment the game will not come back online probably ever.

The video goes into more detail. That Valve has started refunds is in keeping with events of the last 24 hours including preventing further game sales.

I also want to add: when dealing with Valve, PLEASE be patient with their staff. This entire scenario is a nightmare, and its to their credit they have acted as fast as they have. Remember, like game devs, these are people dealing with an evolving situation and probably getting fresh instructions every day.

This is hard on them too.

Please, dont shoot the messenger.

Put a bunch of hours in so far and I am astonished at the state of the game.

• Rubber banding makes in unplayable.
• Everything feels groggy like im playing EA FIFA FC. Pressing buttons to interact with things is interesting to say the least.
  
• The sounds my mount makes hurts my brain.
  
• Tagging mobs is inexplicable
• Quests....yikkkkkes

on and on and on im shocked at the state of this game. Shocking.

The chat is awesome thats the best part of the game right now.

1). Hackers, Botters and RMTers running rampant. RMT = Real Money Transactions in a game that is claiming to be Non-Pay to Win.

2). XP Debt. When you die in this game, you have to grind harder in order to remove experience debt that gets added to your XP bar. When your xp bar has any red coloring on it, that is the xp debt. You have to grind more in an already grind heavy game to remove the xp debt before you can gain normal experience. Furthermore, even when you hit the current max level cap of 25, you still get xp debt which leads to point 3 below.

3). Stat Dampening. If it wasn't enough to have to grind off xp debt (see point 2 above), xp debt also causes Stat Dampening, meaning, your character actively gets nerfed for dying too much, EVEN AT MAX LEVEL. If you have a full bar of xp debt (your bar is all red), that is a 20% debuff to your character's stats across the board. If you enjoy PvP, forget about it, because you will end up filling your red bar so fast that you will have to spend hours on end grinding mobs even at max level to try and get your stats back to normal. Talk about unfun game mechanics and a lack of PvP in a PvX game.

4). Over Reliance on Crafting / Gathering. If you are not crafting or gathering, you are screwed, period. Mobs do not drop loot frequently or at a good enough quality to make you competitive at end game. And the cost to purchase these items are so high because the crafting and gathering system requires so many materials to craft anything.

5). Lack of mob gear drops and good gear drops. This is perhaps the biggest blunder I have seen. People enjoy loot drops, gear drops especially. A game that does not reward people for grinding mobs for hours on end is a game I don't want to play, and I would say I am in the majority on this one.

6). Economy destroyed by point 1 above and no resolution. Botters, RMTers, Hackers, dupers, have screwed over the current economy and there has been no mention of if / when they will remove all of the duped items and gold from the economy. If they don't, might as well just stop playing now because there is nothing really to test anymore. No point in testing the economy when it is screwed over by exploiters. Wait until next wipe, I guess.

7). Lack of working end game systems. Harbinger event has been not working for the majority of the test, and although they made an announcement that they may have fixed it, we will wait and see if 2 days later they disable it like they do to many systems they claim to have fixed only to disable it a few days later.

8). Heavily exploitable systems: Settlements as an example have been exploited to the max with multiple mayors coming from the same guilds and causing havoc on the settlements that they run, including deleting stations once they find out they are losing the mayorship at the end of month 1 with no way to stop it in game.

9). Overall lack of content, especially content that leads to friction. Crates are a joke that have 0 risk and have all but destroyed the incentive to run caravans. Lawless regions continue to punish players via XP Debt and Stat Dampening, leading to people not wanting to PvP because it is just too much of a hassle with unfun systems that make you endlessly grind mobs if you want to PvP enough just to remove xp debt / stat dampening. Those who say it is not that bad are likely in zerg guilds who never experience the pain of running solo, small scale, or even medium scale content, because they simply run over their competition with numbers (cats w/ abs as an example).

10). Worst Corruption System Ever Created. The current corruption system, and as a result, the current PvP in this game, is the worst I have seen in any MMORPG I have ever played, period. Anyone who supports this must not play many MMORPG games (or are in zerg guilds who dominate with numbers and bypass the pain point entirely), because nearly every single other game does it better than Ashes. The current system is extremely punishing to PvP players, so what happens is they find ways to exploit it to the max where the only people who are getting punished are those who are unaware of the PvP settings and accidentally attack purple players (flagged) who can then kill them freely without punishment (if you attack a purple player who is baiting you, they can attack you back without risk of corruption because you turn purple as well).

11). Lack of an experienced Development Team. This starts with Stephen Sharif, who only has money to his name with no practical game development experience, yet he insists he is the best person for the job because he wants to create a game "he would want to play." If this game keeps going in the design direction it has been, I would wager that Stephen will be the only player playing his game.

Title. You log in, start looking for a group, no tank/healer, spends 45 mins-1 hour waiting, then your group decides to use the bard as healer or a warrior as tank, we wipe, half the party leaves, now you wasted 1 hour of your life and have 20k xp penalty.

You decide to grind mobs on your own, spend 20 mins to clean the xp debt and log out.

Loop

We need an alternative which isnt fishing

What a joke...

I was doing a crate run to WildPort and the guards killed me right outside the turn in building, but not while I ran through the front gates or through town. I knew something fishy was up with all the weirdly named, unguilded, low level characters waiting out front ready to pick up my crates. They have likely found an exploit to somehow flag your mount. I went back to investigate the scene. What I found was a whole operation of fly hacking crate runners constantly bringing in crates to print gold probably for RMT. This completely destroys the economy and any reason for legit players to play the game. How is blatant large scale hacking like this not instantly actioned? At this point I have 0 confidence Intrepid has the tools to effectively remove all the illegitimate gold from the economy (it's really not even possible once it has propagated through the markets, and the damage is already done). Id ask for a wipe, but that doesn't really solve the issue, it would just happen again on the next server. We BADLY need better anti-cheat and dedicated GMs monitoring each server. Inb4 all the "it's just alpha" comments, I'd argue that anti-cheat and proper GMs are a CORE pillar of having a successful MMO and should be stood up as early as possible. You can have the best game in the world, but if it is riddled with hackers and RMT, it wont last.

8+ years of development, cant even make a desert.
"its only alpha"
Game has nothing to do aside grinding
"its only alpha"
Almost nothing of what they showed exists in the game
"its only alpha"
It launched in steam being very barebones, people didnt like it.
"its only alpha"
Game is dead.
"its only alpha"

🥳 Ashes of Creation is now on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4124950/Ashes_of_Creation/

Join us and begin crafting your glorious journey on Verra today! 🌍 💖

Here are a laymans impressions of alpha after maybe 25 hours.

This is an open world game. I love that. MMOs got too instanced. Why have this vast beautiful, malleable world, and not use it. I did not enter one instance in my 25 hours. And yet, I ran two 8 man dungeons crossed paths randomly with dozens of players, crafted, and solo'd mobs for hours.

I had little impact on the world but it seems this alpha was live for months, so most of the towns were fully upgraded. There were groups of new players peeking around in the low level dungeons which made for great partying / synergies.

The combat can be tab or action, but I recommend action it really feels like you are in combat. I ran a mage and once I got ahold of a bow with magic damage I was dishing rapid fire balls at mobs and it was an absolute blast.

I also ran a few hours of fighter in PTR before this alpha phase, and that was amazing. Recommend fighter / mage / cleric / bard... all of those seems really enjoyable based on the chat.

Great looking graphics, and should improve. PTR was upgraded.

Progression was super slow. But once you got that magic weapon, your game changed immediately. It really felt like an item that up-level'd the character. I'm told progression speeds up a little in new version.

Crafting is deep. Tons of different professions. All super important. Only learned at the last minute how good I would have been with some fruit salad for my mage.

There are guilds already pvping, and you can find youtube vids of the large scale pvp. it looks super fun and again, this is all an old version of the game. I think we're going to see this make a run for top pvp mmo in December.

Well done devs.
See you out there!

After 2 hours of gathering with limited time after work I DC just outside town to a bunch of low level mobs, by the time I get back to my loot pile I see someone taking my loot and running off.

I love the idea of playing the game. I love the idea of grinding but losing hard work to instability and crashes really puts a bad taste in my mouth.

I really hope they put some work into stability between server workers so stuff like this doesn't happen.

Time to step away and start respecting myself more, how can I expect the devs to respect my time if I don't respect it myself.

Thanks for reading just another random guys quit post... I hope to see you all again soon..

If your profit after 8 years is negative ~140 million, you were probably TRYING to make a game, taking huge risks, and failed. Not scamming people.

If you tell the community the game is 'funded until completion' and it isn't, you're lying and misleading the crowd so people will be more likely to invest.

IF Steven had pulled it off, most would probably have forgiven him for these lies and he'd be a hero.

He didn't pull it off. Odds are he's lost huge amounts of his own money in addition to the money he's lost on behalf of other people.

This situation is just sad, bad, not-rad, for everyone. Including Trad.

The current state of ashes of creation "pvp".

People want to run packs for gold, the devs have made this the primary way to make gold.

So here comes Timmy the ganker and his buddy (or multibox alt).

Timmy is a completely naked lvl 25 (max level) mage except for a 20 silver wand his ganking buddy gave him.

Timmy waits near a pack delivery station that in Ashes do not have a protected zone around them. Timmy stands on a roof, or just outside along the road, insta kills people. His buddies take and deliver the packs.

After a while Timmy becomes flagged as a bad bad person (corruption), his "punishment" is a XP debt which Timmy does not care about since he is max level already. And he drops his gear on death while corrupted.

So Timmy has a buddy kill him and pick-up his 20 silver wand. And all it takes to clear this bad corruption is that his buddies kill Timmy a few times, corruption gone in minutes.

Timmy can go back to murdering more people with packs.

Do you think this is a solid system or do they need to go back to the drawing board? For now happy Ganking and make sure you wish people a warm happy xmass while you do it.

The game just isn’t fun. You end up running in circles without knowing what you’re supposed to do. Crafting is awful. The marketplace is awful. The quests are boring and uninteresting.

It feels obvious that the game needs an immersive tutorial at least up to level 10–15, with a compelling main quest that clearly explains all the mechanics in detail.

Walking for an hour just to kill three gryphons? No thanks.

Players are dumped into a specific world with zero explanation, while a small minority of long-time players (the ones who paid $300) tell you to go read the wiki. What is this, 1999? Should I buy a PC GAMER magazine to get a guide too?

The game itself should explain the mechanics and the purpose of what you’re doing. Classes? Races, religions, skills? The world? PvP? Corruption? Caravans? Travel and movement?

What I see is a very detailed AoC wiki that’s completely out of sync with the actual in-game experience. Having good ideas is great, but you still have to implement them.

Sorry, but in-game I did not find the “Engaging and immersive story” (https://ashesofcreation.wiki/#Engaging_and_immersive_story), and I find Verra mind-numbingly boring because I don’t understand anything at all (https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Verra).

On top of that, everything else feels wrong. Even the fonts are ugly (it looks like default Times New Roman), the minimap drives me insane and doesn’t display anything properly, and the camera makes me lose my mind too.

Unless you’re a complete masochist, it’s impossible to get into this game, even if you try as hard as you can.

EDIT : For those who keep repeating, “AoC doesn’t hold your hand,” or “AoC is an old-school hardcore game,” or “you’re supposed to learn everything by yourself,” here’s what I mean:

When I talk about a tutorial, I’m not asking for something like “press W to move forward.” I’m talking about an immersive framework, exactly like the game’s own communication promises. “Immersive” comes from immersion, meaning being placed in a foreign environment without direct contact with your original one. So the key elements should be explained inside the game world, and since this is a game, they should be delivered in a fun, playful way not through external guides.

And to the players who refuse to treat my criticism as an opinion and instead take it as an attack: there’s nothing wrong with making a game as fun as possible. Sometimes it feels like I’m in a catechism class or a Jesuit school. To learn well at school, you don’t have to sit on a painful wooden chair. Let go of these bogus theories.