A sharp as-hell slasher set to hit next year with Steam and PS4, Aeon Must Die made an unexpected splash during Sony’s State Of Play showcase last Thursday. Unfortunately, it’s not the game people are talking about in the wake of Limestone’s debut. Instead, the game has found itself locked in a minefield of accusations, as former developers accused bosses at Limestone of abuse, harassment, unfair arson and IP theft.
Shortly after Sony debuted the announcement of Aeon Must Die, another trailer appeared on YouTube claiming to share the “truth” about the game’s seemingly turbulent development (cheers, USGamer).
The description for the alternative cut claims that the trailer “was made with abuse, manipulation, theft”, and suggests that many developers behind the creation are no longer with the company – many of them are not paid for their work. The biggest cue, however, is a link to a dropbox repository that contains a wealth of documentation: personal wills, recordings, and emails that come together to paint a picture of ‘unbearable working conditions with endless crunch, harassment, abuse, corruption and manipulation. ”
At the crux of the allegations is Limestone CEO Yaroslav Lyssenko, who accuses former devs of sending threatening emails and terminating employees before they can resign. The Aeon Must Die team hopes their investors will replace the CEO – when they could not, they tried to persuade publishers Focus Home Interactive to get the full IP and complete the development with a new studio formed by former developers, a process that the team is still hoping to pursue. In an interview with PC Gamer, creative director and founder Aleksei Nehoroshkin described the whole affair so far as a “year of psycho-terror.”
Focus have since answered with her own statement on Twitter. But while they take their own steps to untangle the situation, it largely loses the limit to Limestone – treating this as an internal conflict between the former devs and their boss.
Focus Home Interactive has been informed about serious allegations made by some of the developers at Limestone who worked on the creation of the video game Aeon Must Die! These grievances are directed at Limestone, their direct employer.
“As the publisher of this video game, Focus is carefully examining these allegations and will draw the necessary conclusions once they have been proven, and will then take all appropriate action. No further comment will be shared until we have a clearer and fuller view on this matter. ”
According to the Steam list of Aeon Must Die, the game is still set for release on New Year’s Eve, 2021. With a large part of the core development team no longer at Limestone, financially uncertain, and seeking legal help, the future of the game looks pretty damn uncertain. .
