CORRECTION, the text at 8:50 says "close to no information were processed..." So the publisher didn't even bother to look at the information sent before deliberating that everything was fine. Contribute to my channel on Patreon.com/YongYea or by clicking the JOIN button, and you can also follow me on twitter.com/YongYea for the latest updates. TOP PATRONS [CIPHER] - Aiten Williams - CommittedHail [BIG BOSS] - Bancheis - Jonathan Ball - JT - Phil - WECKmaster 329 [BOSS] - Charlie Galvin - Devon B - Joe Hunt - Michael Redmond - Peter Vrba - Shepard Gaming - Time Dragonlord [LEGENDARY] - BattleBladeWar - Gerardo Andrade - Mark Taylor - Theron Webb - Yue
AscendantStoic Any organization can become corrupt if not managed properly, but unions can and do protect the workforce. Holy shit do some video game devs need protection.
@@0fficerpimp let me laugh and say sure. I'm sure you're right in the mid most strict sense of the word, since you know you can make a business yourself. But even then you'd do shady stuff to keep it running.
@@0fficerpimpActually most business would want to be able to go back to when they could treat employees badly, with no repercussions. It the a reason government oversight is needed in capitalism. because capitalism in itself brings out human greed.
I love how every company PR statement has to say "we pride ourselves on ________". Basically saying "we say we do good things for employees, but these are just WORDS. So believe us if you're ignorant".
A good rule of thumb: Carefully look over the contract you're going to sign. Another good rule of thumb: If you're being rushed to sign it, deliberately slow down and let whomever made it know that it's suspicious they act this way.
@Robin Hogan refusing to sign a contract is shady af. I'm sorry about what happened but how did that not set off red flags? Were they a friend or something?
@Robin Hogan I'll surely make the attempt. Even if you can't sue, I reckon you can hurt their credibility till it starts hurting them financially by sharing with some bigger names that care more about the consumer and creator over the business. I'll see if I can find sources of your work in some way without giving the wrong people the views they want.
Many things they mentioned is a common occurrence in Russia. A lot of businesses here were founded in the 90's by criminals and they treat their workers exactly as you would expect. Even should they step away by now, they would still raise a successor who will behave in the same way (sadly I have some experience with these people myself).
@@randomguy6679 yeah that sounds great when it's detached from reality. How often do you see an owner of any shop you goes to? What do you know about his work conditions? I worked in a hardware store with an owner like that, people loved it - good prices, wide range of products, experienced staff. Who would think about dealings behind the curtains? Even if they do, who would choose to inconvenience themselves and go looking for an alternative? The sad reality of business is that you can often make a better offer if you increase the workload and lower the wages. It's not a coincidence China is so efficient in any highly competitive market.
But sociopathy isn't and never was a legitimate business skill, nor has it been _"accepted"_ as one... Heck, sociopathy isn't even a skill. Dude, are you high or something?
Gaming companies: "We need to fill games to the brim with micro-transactions and DLC that should be part of the main game, to pay the devs!" Also gaming companies: don't pay devs
@@ricechido1089 I think most are ok in just waiting for those $70.00 games to drop after a few months down to $40.00 games. lol I for one will not buy any new gen at full price. Esp with the push for a lot of the games towards in-game ads now it seems.
What an interesting situation it will be where a game might be fantastic (Aeon looked great in the trailer) and yet nobody will want to support it because of behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Hopefully it sucks, I guess?
I remember after watching that trailer I was thinking “this looks alright, maybe me and my sib can play this.” An then a hour later after I finished my exercises I see it trending. After seeing why I was very upset. In short I refuse to pay for this game. Crunch, didn’t get paid, and despite all that the studio and publisher still post the trailer thanks to them getting some non contracted animators and artist.
After all this i don't think the game will come out at all. I mean their developers quit, the game is still a year away from releasing and now this controversy. I think Aeon must die has already died.
shooting6lasers Maybe for you, but to me I feel the complete opposite. Whether you’re paid or not going through grueling rough hours with little to no breaks is awful. Human beings aren’t machines.
Human resources in every sense of the word is never on the side of the employee , remember that , they are there to enforce company policy and make sure the employer is covered that's always been the case and with COVID im sure alot of people found that out
Be careful with companies who mask HR as Personal Department and tries to pull the "Our culture is to treat every employee as people, so we don't use the word resource". They're the WORST - they employ behavioral engineering to do the same shitty practices as HR but masked as "We're all a family, they office is like your second home!". "We care about our employees so much, we don't you to work extra hours, but if the project demands it... YOU DO IT. But we won't pay those hours, we'll give them back to you as a day off when you """"choose""" to, oh and if the deadline or delivery is not met because you took that day off, well sweety, that's on you. We told you not to work those extra hours".
@@habibsspirit Exactly, got laid off from the firm I was working for last year after being there for 4 years. When I got there the company was relatively small and we were treated as family which I liked (because of bad practice from other firms in the past). We grew to a relatively large medium sized company really fast in those 4 years and that "family" feeling faded by the years. When they laid me off it's almost like they didn't knew me anymore, I was just a stranger which did nothing for them... it's sad and disgusting.
The indie gaming scene has a lot of quick-buck scammers in production, development and/or publishing taking advantage of people following their dream to make the next Skullgirls, Cuphead etc success story. Be careful out there
They were probably waiting for the trailer to drop before doing so. Had they waited then there would be not as many eyes on this game to see it thanks to Sony, get interested in the game then find out what happened, shedding light on the reality of what goes into making a game behind the scenes. Just because something looks nice doesn't mean that the time spent making it was.
I can imagine Android Wilson inviting them to the Church of EA and then after 6 months firing them and laying them off. Just like they did back in the 90s
@@iStrong113 That's the thing You shouldn't compare Europe to murica as they only care about maximizing profits above human rights Hell, unpaid overtime is illegal as well here and not paying your employees will get you in trouble with the government. BTW I'm from Lithuania
It's legal in India, apparently, because the employer needs to give the employees a termination letter for the employment to legally end, and it's illegal to work two jobs at once there. As a result, it's entirely possible for them to refuse to give you the termination letter until you meet their conditions.
when i was young i wanted to go into computer programming and game desgning, someone told me: "Dont, it seems far better than it really is, hours are long, wages are worse, pressure is soul crushing" ... needless to say my dream was crashed but he was right..
Honestly, making games is alot of fun. It's just that the industry is one of the most unregulated industries in the world, so naturally, stuff like this pops up every now and then. I will say this though. If you're making games, you have to commit. Alot.
I think Puppet Combo is doing pretty gd making horror games for youtubers and his patrons on patreon (correct me if im wrong). I dont mean earning big bucks but he does release games consistently.
@@billsutherby A sad reminder that John 'TotalBiscuit' Bain once supported the cause of what was a truly legendary gaming company until his dying days in May of 2018, his fall coincidentally giving rise to the extreme corruption of the gaming industry, even on levels previously not thought possible before. :(
@@k-kayla The devs wrote to Focus telling them what was going on and asking them for help, so either Focus was complicit in the abuse or they willfully ignored it. Either way, they're not an innocent party.
@Soupmaster101 Or you just want to play a few fun and solid games to kill the time/play with friends and go on. Like play some Squad and Post Scriptum for 2 matches after sports, bar or study.
Maybe a story will cheer you up! It's called "The Corrupted Barnacle " Once there was a corrupted barnacle. It was so corrupted that everyone quit. The end.
It sounds as though the company went bankrupt. When you work for a company, your work belongs to the company, so the "theft of IP" claim is exaggerated. If the company doesn't pay you, or treats you bad, you quit. You don't get to take the work that you did with you. If you personally put money into a company, you become a part shareholder, so get a percentage of the voting rights. If the company goes bankrupt, shareholders lose the money they put in (but no more). Creditors have priority over shareholders, so the IP owned by the company would be sold to pay the debts, not returned to the creators.
I'd rather just hear from the original person since all Shreier does is just copy and paste emails he gets from insiders. Why not cut out the middle man?
@@gabrote42 pretty much this. You gotta hive it to a person that can comment for you. Polish it up and make it sing, which he does REAL well ( hell i know the dude only does games stories but Id LOVE for him to jump into the world of pharmaceutical, mainly retail pharmacy*wink wink*) and get the story in as many devices for people to read as possible.
“Go at it on your own.” Problem is, the interest would be minimal if they self-publish, and even worse, can die out if indie games won’t speed up the development without much corporate funding.
The CEO of the studio itself is the cause of the mismanagement and abuse. The publisher has been a silent complicit. Read the documents in the Dropbox, it's really gut-wrenching.
What exactly are trade unions actually supposed to do? Company I work for has a few union representatives and they are just parasites. They don't do any company work, they don't help or care about employees, they are hardest to fire or discipline because local laws and they have much better salaries than average employee for just sitting in office and drinking coffee.
Game devs are prone to be exploited by publishers, higher ups, company. Heck, even their own projects (through crunches and disparity of artistic visions)
Had a chance to play their game on a business event and talked to the team and CEO. Everything seemed to be going fine by then. Plus everyone seemed super passionate about the project. Unfortunate to see this crash and burn.
@MrKlassic Great question :) I am not sure how much has been publically revealed at this point gameplay-wise so I will try to stay vague with my response. (Also my time playing the game was 2ish years ago, things could have been changed etc.) The main character had 3 states: overheated, overcold and a middle-ground. Different combos and moves would bring out a specific state. Two states would make the main character invulnerable (hot and cold), while in other if you get hit once you are instantly killed (or in reverse, do not remember!). Enemies would keep spawning in the arena with the player having to take care of lots of enemies at once, or playing against one strong opponent. Upon death, the player would have an option to respawn and continue fighting or restart (either the fight or the game). The game was brutally hard. I would die more than 10 times per battle The game was extremely popular with event attendees; throughout the multiple days we were at the event there was always a queue. People seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it. In addition to that, there was a game competition between indie developers we also participated in. The Aeon Game won by a longshot, it really stole the spotlight of the show (well deserved at that point)! I had the chance to speak to the creators and the CEO as well. At that point, I saw no red flags in any conversations. Showfloor presenters were confident and proud of their product. Everyone had been working incredibly hard and was passionate about the game.
I imagine that in these circumstances when you're out to promote your product you put on a facade to ensure the best possible image to potential customers. Kind of like going to a party with somebody you have relationship problems with. The issues are there under the surface and once you go back home they'll all come back to the surface again.
Bruno Novello they just need to learn to stick it to the publishers. Good games WILL succeed. If Cyberpunk puts a link to donate money to help devs, they’ll get it.
Currently studying to be a game dev and the motivation each year goes down because of the shitty work environment, it’s getting difficult to stay positive
Me before watching the video: "Whatever happened to due process?" Me after watching the video: "Dear lord, that's terrifying. I hope that game fails, unless the original creators get their IP back."
And here i though joining an indi studio would be my best option after graduation, i'm not even working in the industry yet and i'm already considering a career shift.
Is cool when a new generation of console come out so we can get more evolved games but the dark part of this is games are more complicated and takes much longer to make because the capabilities of the hardware. However publishers still want to release the game asap to sell it sooner (and later will come the patches) so the people that work on this games suffers of abuses and corruptions in their work environment. Also players must understand that in the future games will take much longer to make than today, so we can stop being so hasty about asking for the release date of a game.
My counter to this is that while gamers have a ravenous appetite for content, most times we are overly willing to accept release delays if that means the game comes out in a better shape. It's not the consumer that is pushing for annual releases or shorter development time, its investors and shareholders doing so. Its not customers asking for highly complex game mechanics and high fidelity graphics, fall guy just dropped and people are going insane over it. It's these CEOs and big money firms that have probably never even played a game before, but they look at their little graphs and charts, slam their fists on the table, and demand more return on their investment.
Sony seems to be doing their work half-asleep these days since they moved their Playstation HQ to Commiefornia, remember the animation that was plagiarized and used in one of their promotional videos ... and that weird Life of Black Tiger game that is utter crap being sold on PSN somehow.
Sony can't audit every dev and publisher they work with, especially for smaller games, it's not only unfeasible financially, it's probably also unrealistic legally, they're bona fide parties to a contract and can only assume that the counterparty is not doing anything wrong. Sony has probably only become aware of this as soon as everyone else did, especially considering the game is multiplat.
@@HigakiRinne They aren't a new or small company, they can afford to get more people to do even a simple internet search about the people they are working with, if randos on the internet/reddit could figure it out in a day or two (like they did with the plagiarized promotional video) then Sony with all it's resources and connection has NO excuse whatsoever.
The funny thing is how well the company name describes the situation. Limestone is a soluble rock. If there is a deposit of it underground and water starts seeping through it, the deposit begins to erode. And if the erosion create a big enough void, it causes a sinkhole. What happened here is kinda like that. An erosion caused by corruption and abuse over time. Eventually leading to what is now a just hollow shell of what was once a decent game development team.
I mean, I don't want the evil corrupt people to just lose their company. I want them to die. To be clear, I'm not making any threats, nor am I advocating for anybody to go out and harm them. But car accidents happen every day. Cancer, heart disease, strokes and random acts of violence are just a few random ways people can die totally by chance. I'm just asking God, or karma or whoever you wanna believe in to push a little fatally bad luck their way.
I dont think they will, now that the CEO had made darn sure to mark them all with a black mark in their work resume. Now every western game company will know that these devs can not be exploited, the possibility for revolts is too high.
This type of story is really sad to hear, but as the games industry becomes more ‘corporate’ (for lack of a better word) I’m afraid we will keep having to hear them. Games, especially at the indie level, used to be passion projects. I wish those devs all the best
Most developers want to work for the indie scene. You have to be careful and pick where you work, who you work for, and where you work. The indie scene tends to be more caring to its developers, but as we’ve seen, that isn’t always the case.
"close tono" is probably just "close to no"... as in "next to no information" - You were looking at it too complexly, it was just a missing space, it looks like.
Honestly dev abuse is so rampant I was taught to prepare for it during animation class. We were expected to crunch for grades, work non stop and I slept under my desk.
Never work for "under the table" pay. Its a risk to you and your family by not getting paid, its bad for your local and federal government and society, if you lose the job and can't prove you worked, you'll be denied unemployment benefits. Also, no workman's comp if you get injured while working under the table. Unless you're mowing your grandmas lawn, don't work untaxed.
@Star Scream dude, China is not the source of everybody's problems, limestone studios is not in China, the problem is capitalism, every single country is corrupt because of corporations, dont pay attention to Donald dip shit when he pretends that China is the issue with the whole world when America is one of the most exploitative, corporate countries right next to China
Sterling Archer “Gamers just care”- no. No tf they don’t. This is why these companies exist and will continue to exist,cause gamers complain about their practices while buying their games.
Hell, I'm proud!!! Shit, I support the team! People never WANT to quit their job. Especially if they put so much effort into something. Sounds like the team did the right thing. I wish people of ALL colors & Creed's did the same thing. Companies need to remember their "lower level" workers deserve more than what they're given.
Besides Crash 4, I was really looking forward to this one. Disappointing and gross. Not sure if it's even a fixable situation, but I would hope for a reckoning so this grotesque behavior is punished and can not be as rampant.
The problem is Focus Home Interactive have played party in this, having willingly supported the studio’s action. A lot of the issues would’ve been fixed from the start if FHI had done something.
@Александър Тренчев A lot of publisher do check in on studios, granted COVID-19 might make it difficult, but when the ex-staff members complained they should’ve taken it seriously.
And I have to wonder how many more of these indie companies are out there seeing as we only see the ones that are reported on. To clarify, we already know of how bad AAA publishers are, but people tend to look at Indies like they're so much better and ethical. Thing is, no company is ever immune to corruption. Damn, I just wanna play good games man
their first game ain't even hit the stores and they already make their name heard because of scandal? all I can say is good luck, you'll need that limestone games
Damn. This game looks really good. Ashamed to hear that it has all of this baggage behind it, hope that the devs get justice and the game could eventually be released.
Even if released, unless a Lawsuit gives the ORIGINAL TEAM their rights to the IP, don't even bother buying. My take: do not buy unless the original team is the one developing it as an independent indie team
Living in the bay, no one here gets respect. Even the software engineers are underpaid for the most part, unless you fit into your bosses posey world. People believe that the idea is worth more that everyone bringing that idea to fruition. Everyone being the devs, the people keeping the building running, the people cooking everyone’s food, all replaceable thus, underpaid. When people say that you’ll get paid what your worth, what they really mean is burn my building down because I don’t deserve any of my daddy’s money either. What people really mean when they say, the idea justifies my paycheck, they mean, the guy who already has all the money gets to keep all the incoming money. everyone else at the company barley gets by on pennies and will like it or t the company will find someone else. When are we getting started on this revolution? The devs that make 300k a year don’t actually work. They manage people coding out their hand drawn diagram that they made the night before the presentation. The ones actually using their brains get paid 60k in fucking San Francisco for 4 years until they get laid off and have to starts all over at another company. Before you know it, you’re 47 and starting your 8th career because every single fucking company fires everyone the moment the project is done without ANY WARNING.
Man that is just sad. I feel so sorry for them. Nothing more worse then creating something through hard work to only have it snatched away. The saddest part is how much money and sacrifice is lost from this effort. I hope they find some closure from all of this. Thanks for sharing this story YongYea and keep up the good work with your videos.
Bless you yong for always being one to use your well earned and massive subscription count to bring even more light to corruption and helping start the nessecary conversations, which are helpful to all.
There's way too much corruption and greed in the video games industry these days... Why does it have to be so hard for people with passion to make good games without greedy CEO's and companies exploiting them to heck...
@@Seraphim737-l1i Hilarious considering what occurs in Hollywood. In practice, they just outsource the riskier jobs to someone else since it would be too costly to maintain their wellbeing. They take those jobs because they're excited to get their name out by working for big brands.
@Sterling Archer As someone who lives in a country where unions are the de facto standard in pretty much any industry, let me tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about. Any company that raises their prices in response to unionization is merely using it as an excuse (and a scapegoat). The purpose is to instrumentalize the public against said union. They're trying to make their problems your problems, so that you will support their fight against said unions, allowing them to abuse them even more and squeeze more money out of their employees (your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your children, your grandparents, your friends, basically anyone you know, love, or even just cherish). And what do they do with that money? Turn it into fat bonuses for their scumbag executives. You're being played, and you refuse to come to that realization. Because that's what happens when they play you well. It's the companies that are the problem, not the employees. Period. On top of that, those price increases are pretty much irrelevant when everyone ends up earning more. You're increasing everyone's standard of living across the board. That's hardly a bad thing.
This is so messed up, I know Aleksei Nehoroshkin though we haven't had any contact for years, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Last time I visited him in Tallinn he showed me some of the designs he had been working on and I remember that awesome art style
I think companies are behind the times. But in this digital ages it's far harder to get away with shady deals. Emails, text, phone calls, etc. Every thing is recorded and saved these days, anything you say can and will be used against you. If not in the court of law, at least in the court of public opinion.
This is shamefull. Well Focus just joined the EA/Activision club :D. The fact it is ok for them that the dev are NOT paid, crunch all the time is incredible (in a very bad way).
@@АлександърТренчев-э2я but they did ignore letters from the developers about the working conditions and are only now looking at the evidence because this got public traction, otherwise they were willing to ignore it.
I've said it for years, I'll continue to say it: this is _not_ the exception in the games industry. This is the *rule.* _Do not_ work in the games industry if you don't want to work in one of the worst jobs you could ever have.
Stories like these make me so happy to live in a developed country, with labour rights and all that. That being said, I don't understand why the developers don't leave sooner, and find a job in a different industry. Most of them are programmers. Their skills are in extremely high demand. There's more demand than supply. They'll hire anyone who can find a computer's on/off button.
8:53 Original: "close tono information" Translation: "close to no information" one space bar. on a serious note, im not suprised tbh. its become rare for game companies to do good thing. a lot of companies do good things just to cover up their shady past. ea being one of them.
A lot of people complain about YongYea's near-constant pessimistic take on the game industry and how so many of his videos are negative. That all he does is read and redistribute other peoples' findings. I for one appreciate that I can see all the scummy stuff I otherwise wouldn't know about in one place. You're doing God's work my man.
Ahhh yes. The classic Greater good argument at the expense of everyone's health, hope and dreams as the top just get richer. The oldest tale in human history.
I think the OG devs should have destroyed all the stuff Limestone Games had regarding Aeon Must Die when the CEO rejected their resignation. It's their property, not Limestone's. Not anymore.
Damn this really need to be known by more people. I first saw this game long time ago and almost forgot about it, but it certainly looks like a good game. But now I don't wanna support it at all! Hope the original team can find new passionate projects to work on and get what their talents deserve!
CORRECTION, the text at 8:50 says "close to no information were processed..." So the publisher didn't even bother to look at the information sent before deliberating that everything was fine.
Contribute to my channel on Patreon.com/YongYea or by clicking the JOIN button, and you can also follow me on twitter.com/YongYea for the latest updates.
TOP PATRONS
[CIPHER]
- Aiten Williams
- CommittedHail
[BIG BOSS]
- Bancheis
- Jonathan Ball
- JT
- Phil
- WECKmaster 329
[BOSS]
- Charlie Galvin
- Devon B
- Joe Hunt
- Michael Redmond
- Peter Vrba
- Shepard Gaming
- Time Dragonlord
[LEGENDARY]
- BattleBladeWar
- Gerardo Andrade
- Mark Taylor
- Theron Webb
- Yue
..
.
...
...
.
Abusive companies: **abuse employees**
Also abusive companies: "why would employees unionize?"
Who shot Hannibal...
If you think unions can't very easily become corrupt and abusive you are so fucking naive.
@@AscendantStoic What is the alternative then? Why not give that a shot?
@@AscendantStoic When exactly did that guy say otherwise? Talk about a strawman argument, sheesh.
AscendantStoic Any organization can become corrupt if not managed properly, but unions can and do protect the workforce. Holy shit do some video game devs need protection.
A sickening look at the game developer scene, really.
You mean every corporation scene ever made.
they hate video games like Joe rogan would say
@@0fficerpimp let me laugh and say sure. I'm sure you're right in the mid most strict sense of the word, since you know you can make a business yourself. But even then you'd do shady stuff to keep it running.
@@0fficerpimp but only because you can enlarge the dong
@@0fficerpimpActually most business would want to be able to go back to when they could treat employees badly, with no repercussions. It the a reason government oversight is needed in capitalism. because capitalism in itself brings out human greed.
Devs: *sent a letter regarding unbearable work conditions and corruption*
Publisher: I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that.
@@TheDarkChaplain Thank goodness for email, eh? 🐸☕
The publisher ignored it. Whether that was accidental of deliberate doesn't alter the impact.
Hector Andem That’s true
sounds like working for Harvey Weinstein
also publisher: "lets email this to their boss"
I love how every company PR statement has to say "we pride ourselves on ________".
Basically saying "we say we do good things for employees, but these are just WORDS. So believe us if you're ignorant".
Tomorrow's unethical business practices Today.
A good rule of thumb: Carefully look over the contract you're going to sign.
Another good rule of thumb: If you're being rushed to sign it, deliberately slow down and let whomever made it know that it's suspicious they act this way.
@Robin Hogan refusing to sign a contract is shady af. I'm sorry about what happened but how did that not set off red flags? Were they a friend or something?
Robin Hogan Did you think of taking legal action?
@Robin Hogan I haven't heard of this yet! Might I have a link to a UA-cam video on this? Maybe several other sources? I'd like to know more.
@Robin Hogan I'll surely make the attempt.
Even if you can't sue, I reckon you can hurt their credibility till it starts hurting them financially by sharing with some bigger names that care more about the consumer and creator over the business.
I'll see if I can find sources of your work in some way without giving the wrong people the views they want.
Good rule of thumb: never sign an important contract without having a lawyer examine it first.
Aeon must die is already dying before launch, rip
*irony*
Game looks cool maybe I'll get me self a free copy on the seas
The Last Mohican Arrrrr, now that be a mighty fine idea!
Great success!!
Talk about a self fulfilling prophecy.
Dang it. I actually really like the trailer for this game. Too bad it's now corrupted and will likely never come out or will come out in a bad state.
Even if it comes out, is it really worth playing as long as the original devs are screwed over?
same it looked reallyyy good
@@IndiumInk yarrr me matey, lets set sail to thy wild yonder
@@IndiumInk we going sailing my boii
@@Ravathiel Yar har fiddle de dee...
Aeon Must Die? More like "Aeon Dead On Arrival."
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
BADUM TSSSSHHH!!
I am ded. not big soup rice
Aeon Dead On Arrival? More like Bore Ragnarök
More like
Aeon Being Aborted
RIP
I'm sick of ruthless sociopathy being accepted as a legitimate business skill.
Many things they mentioned is a common occurrence in Russia. A lot of businesses here were founded in the 90's by criminals and they treat their workers exactly as you would expect. Even should they step away by now, they would still raise a successor who will behave in the same way (sadly I have some experience with these people myself).
As long as people give those sociopaths money, its never gonna change.
@@randomguy6679 yeah that sounds great when it's detached from reality. How often do you see an owner of any shop you goes to? What do you know about his work conditions? I worked in a hardware store with an owner like that, people loved it - good prices, wide range of products, experienced staff. Who would think about dealings behind the curtains? Even if they do, who would choose to inconvenience themselves and go looking for an alternative?
The sad reality of business is that you can often make a better offer if you increase the workload and lower the wages. It's not a coincidence China is so efficient in any highly competitive market.
But sociopathy isn't and never was a legitimate business skill, nor has it been _"accepted"_ as one... Heck, sociopathy isn't even a skill. Dude, are you high or something?
@@ultimaxkom8728 most if not all CEOs are sociopaths and today less then 10% of working people enjoy their job.
Are you high?
"Aeon must die"
"Aeon just died"
Aeon should have died aeons ago...
Bruh
@@captainfuture5984 nah
Yeah, I'm not buying this game.
_"We hear you..." "We're looking into it..."_
After months and months of doing nothing about it...
Months and months? what?
This comment belongs on 76% of videos about AAA games.
CEO: It's not corruption, it's surprise pocket money
Is it really pocket money if it goes to booze, drugs, and hookers?
@@rosesweetcharlotte r/wooosh
Carly Crays yes Well spend. Pocket money lol
@@rosesweetcharlotte
Have you read about that pew review study that water is wet?
Every time somebody bring this joke up, I feel like slapping that lady and Im a nice guy, really.
Gaming companies: "We need to fill games to the brim with micro-transactions and DLC that should be part of the main game, to pay the devs!"
Also gaming companies: don't pay devs
@@billyj.causeyvideoguy7361 Correction: Pay the board members, top executives and shareholders. Others be damned
And people are ok will $70 price tags
@@ricechido1089 Sail the high seas with your pirate hat on . Screw it you pirate games if they have a billion dlcs like Sims 4
@@ricechido1089 I think most are ok in just waiting for those $70.00 games to drop after a few months down to $40.00 games. lol I for one will not buy any new gen at full price. Esp with the push for a lot of the games towards in-game ads now it seems.
@@martinmccormick2166
Thats why you don't buy day one unless it's nintendo
What an interesting situation it will be where a game might be fantastic (Aeon looked great in the trailer) and yet nobody will want to support it because of behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Hopefully it sucks, I guess?
Hi hook daddy
it'll be a great game to pirate if it is good at least
@@ladymoragsbootlaces8059 agreed
worst case scenario: it could be a masterpiece but no one will support it due to it's shady background
@@Dash120z *its
Jim sterling is gonna have a field day with this
Rocky.S Roger I can hardly wait.
Hehe.... Good!
Thank god
Well, Monday IS comming...
@Ta ble he supports cancel culture? Any examples?
”Stop complaining and think of the CEOs, won't someone PLEASE think about the poor CEOs?!"
Yeah poor CEO 😢he’s suffering
Let’s Put him down so the pain stops😂
Yh man they need enough money to purchase kids for their weekend sacrifices, poor satanists can't offer up lives to Moloch big sad
😂
@UFHoee they just want their island for their blood rituals those poor things
Nice Simpson's reference. Replace CEOs with the word "children". To find the video
Artist: Lets make a game
Life: Alright time to send you to the shadow realm
This is sad
And my cuisins thought it be easy
I remember after watching that trailer I was thinking “this looks alright, maybe me and my sib can play this.” An then a hour later after I finished my exercises I see it trending. After seeing why I was very upset. In short I refuse to pay for this game. Crunch, didn’t get paid, and despite all that the studio and publisher still post the trailer thanks to them getting some non contracted animators and artist.
After all this i don't think the game will come out at all. I mean their developers quit, the game is still a year away from releasing and now this controversy. I think Aeon must die has already died.
Aeon HAS died.
gonna have fun pirating the shit out if this.
Crunch is fine. Not getting paid for it (or paid at all) is horrible and illegal.
shooting6lasers Maybe for you, but to me I feel the complete opposite. Whether you’re paid or not going through grueling rough hours with little to no breaks is awful. Human beings aren’t machines.
They all just learned that: HR is not your friend.
Human resources in every sense of the word is never on the side of the employee , remember that , they are there to enforce company policy and make sure the employer is covered that's always been the case and with COVID im sure alot of people found that out
Be careful with companies who mask HR as Personal Department and tries to pull the "Our culture is to treat every employee as people, so we don't use the word resource".
They're the WORST - they employ behavioral engineering to do the same shitty practices as HR but masked as "We're all a family, they office is like your second home!".
"We care about our employees so much, we don't you to work extra hours, but if the project demands it... YOU DO IT. But we won't pay those hours, we'll give them back to you as a day off when you """"choose""" to, oh and if the deadline or delivery is not met because you took that day off, well sweety, that's on you. We told you not to work those extra hours".
HR = is always evil. I prefer to work for a company without HR at all. Do you want vacations? Then ask to your boss.
@@habibsspirit Exactly, got laid off from the firm I was working for last year after being there for 4 years. When I got there the company was relatively small and we were treated as family which I liked (because of bad practice from other firms in the past). We grew to a relatively large medium sized company really fast in those 4 years and that "family" feeling faded by the years. When they laid me off it's almost like they didn't knew me anymore, I was just a stranger which did nothing for them... it's sad and disgusting.
HR is part of and for the company, so if you think they are for you, you should look at the first part of the sentence.
The indie gaming scene has a lot of quick-buck scammers in production, development and/or publishing taking advantage of people following their dream to make the next Skullgirls, Cuphead etc success story. Be careful out there
Not as bad as AAA developers
They were probably waiting for the trailer to drop before doing so. Had they waited then there would be not as many eyes on this game to see it thanks to Sony, get interested in the game then find out what happened, shedding light on the reality of what goes into making a game behind the scenes. Just because something looks nice doesn't mean that the time spent making it was.
EA and Activision : **with tears of happyness in eyes** "Our child is growing up."
I can imagine Android Wilson inviting them to the Church of EA and then after 6 months firing them and laying them off. Just like they did back in the 90s
happiness
@@Legion849 ANDROID WILSON
How the hell is it even possible to "Reject" a resignation letter???
my thought exactly. Unbelievable.
@@iStrong113 That's the thing
You shouldn't compare Europe to murica as they only care about maximizing profits above human rights
Hell, unpaid overtime is illegal as well here and not paying your employees will get you in trouble with the government.
BTW I'm from Lithuania
@@xAvitaLT If you say so.
@@xAvitaLT So, in other words, the only "Murican" thing that will be happening here will be lawsuits? YAY!! LAWSUITS! LAWSUITS! LAWSUITS!
It's legal in India, apparently, because the employer needs to give the employees a termination letter for the employment to legally end, and it's illegal to work two jobs at once there. As a result, it's entirely possible for them to refuse to give you the termination letter until you meet their conditions.
when i was young i wanted to go into computer programming and game desgning, someone told me: "Dont, it seems far better than it really is, hours are long, wages are worse, pressure is soul crushing" ... needless to say my dream was crashed but he was right..
You could make game as a hobby like a side project in live. No pressure, no deadline and no bullshit. Just like the good ol' day of newground.
Im a week late but the guy above me is right you can develop a game as a side project and take your time with it
Honestly, making games is alot of fun. It's just that the industry is one of the most unregulated industries in the world, so naturally, stuff like this pops up every now and then. I will say this though. If you're making games, you have to commit. Alot.
I think Puppet Combo is doing pretty gd making horror games for youtubers and his patrons on patreon (correct me if im wrong). I dont mean earning big bucks but he does release games consistently.
Damn almost as toxic of a studio as blizzard.
Oh come on, Blizzard said it themselves "We are listening. And we will do better."
See, proof positive! Would they lie to us?
Bill Sutherby Is this sarcastic? Sorry, I can’t really read tone that well.
@@liansmith4038 yes
@@billsutherby A sad reminder that John 'TotalBiscuit' Bain once supported the cause of what was a truly legendary gaming company until his dying days in May of 2018, his fall coincidentally giving rise to the extreme corruption of the gaming industry, even on levels previously not thought possible before. :(
@@liansmith4038 pretty easy to tell its sarcasm.
Still don't know how they went into State of Play, though.
Just like that. Like Anthem and shit
Mmmmmmmmmoney!
Life of Tiger got connections, what can I say
Devs don't own the ip
@@k-kayla The devs wrote to Focus telling them what was going on and asking them for help, so either Focus was complicit in the abuse or they willfully ignored it. Either way, they're not an innocent party.
I was actually waiting for a story like this because of how each scummy company seems to be trying to out do eachother in scumness.
Stick with CD projekt red least scummy by far and actually seem to give a shit about us gamers.
I guess it's all just one big game to them.
@Soupmaster101 Or you just want to play a few fun and solid games to kill the time/play with friends and go on.
Like play some Squad and Post Scriptum for 2 matches after sports, bar or study.
@Soupmaster101 I'm not buying ooblets or this game for crappy reasons while im sure they're good games.
It's almost like the environment breeds scumfuckery
Maybe a story will cheer you up!
It's called "The Corrupted Barnacle "
Once there was a corrupted barnacle.
It was so corrupted that everyone quit.
The end.
Publisher: "SHUT UP SLAVE! SHUT UP AND CODE!"
that about right?
It sounds as though the company went bankrupt. When you work for a company, your work belongs to the company, so the "theft of IP" claim is exaggerated. If the company doesn't pay you, or treats you bad, you quit. You don't get to take the work that you did with you.
If you personally put money into a company, you become a part shareholder, so get a percentage of the voting rights. If the company goes bankrupt, shareholders lose the money they put in (but no more). Creditors have priority over shareholders, so the IP owned by the company would be sold to pay the debts, not returned to the creators.
Prosecutor: “Bring in the Schreier!”
Defence: "Not the Schreier!"
Hopefully that happens this month
I'd rather just hear from the original person since all Shreier does is just copy and paste emails he gets from insiders. Why not cut out the middle man?
@@Laneous14 they could totally be Fired/Proscecuted/Ruined/Disbelieved if they were to speak out without using a journalist.
@@gabrote42 pretty much this.
You gotta hive it to a person that can comment for you. Polish it up and make it sing, which he does REAL well ( hell i know the dude only does games stories but Id LOVE for him to jump into the world of pharmaceutical, mainly retail pharmacy*wink wink*) and get the story in as many devices for people to read as possible.
Depressing and awful as it is, this is an object lesson to every indie dev out there: never go to bed with a shady publisher. Go at it on your own.
Problem is, not every indie studio can
It was people from the indie studio who abused employees, the publisher ignored them. Just shit from top to bottom.
“Go at it on your own.” Problem is, the interest would be minimal if they self-publish, and even worse, can die out if indie games won’t speed up the development without much corporate funding.
The CEO of the studio itself is the cause of the mismanagement and abuse. The publisher has been a silent complicit. Read the documents in the Dropbox, it's really gut-wrenching.
@@Artiomiz Kinda makes you see how stupidly dependant we've become to fancy pieces of paper, trinkets and numbers on a server.
There should be a game developers' union the amount of abuse in this type of work is absurd.
They wouldn't help. We need laws osha's should apply
@@paulrasmussen8953 I've worked in union and non union jobs and trust me union jobs are a lot better for the workers.
@@wutsgondown nope. The concept of a union is fine but most unions are a hard no for me
@@paulrasmussen8953 I mean if you want to get treated like crap by your employers that's your prerogative.
What exactly are trade unions actually supposed to do? Company I work for has a few union representatives and they are just parasites. They don't do any company work, they don't help or care about employees, they are hardest to fire or discipline because local laws and they have much better salaries than average employee for just sitting in office and drinking coffee.
"I hope a journalist will dig into this *properly"*
I doubt that. I really do.
Lolz
Game journalists doing their job? Ninsense.
@@vocalcalibration8033 they barely can play video games
Why is the game industry so toxic, it's really disheartening
Pretty much every industry is bad, it's just that the videogame one is new so they push that extra bit further.
Game devs are prone to be exploited by publishers, higher ups, company. Heck, even their own projects (through crunches and disparity of artistic visions)
Passionate creatives meet power-hungry upper management.
It's a form of mass media; A magnet for narcissists who want to get rich by telling everyone what an important person they are.
3 Words. Buissnesmen in Suits :)
Had a chance to play their game on a business event and talked to the team and CEO. Everything seemed to be going fine by then. Plus everyone seemed super passionate about the project. Unfortunate to see this crash and burn.
@MrKlassic Great question :)
I am not sure how much has been publically revealed at this point gameplay-wise so I will try to stay vague with my response. (Also my time playing the game was 2ish years ago, things could have been changed etc.)
The main character had 3 states: overheated, overcold and a middle-ground. Different combos and moves would bring out a specific state. Two states would make the main character invulnerable (hot and cold), while in other if you get hit once you are instantly killed (or in reverse, do not remember!).
Enemies would keep spawning in the arena with the player having to take care of lots of enemies at once, or playing against one strong opponent. Upon death, the player would have an option to respawn and continue fighting or restart (either the fight or the game).
The game was brutally hard. I would die more than 10 times per battle
The game was extremely popular with event attendees; throughout the multiple days we were at the event there was always a queue. People seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it.
In addition to that, there was a game competition between indie developers we also participated in. The Aeon Game won by a longshot, it really stole the spotlight of the show (well deserved at that point)!
I had the chance to speak to the creators and the CEO as well. At that point, I saw no red flags in any conversations. Showfloor presenters were confident and proud of their product. Everyone had been working incredibly hard and was passionate about the game.
@@GameDesignerPlays Damn, fucking shame the games development turned to shit. That sounds like a fun mechanic
@@benjaminshields9421 Yeah it was very unique. Could have definitely seen "hardcore" and"soulslike" gamers enjoy it
I imagine that in these circumstances when you're out to promote your product you put on a facade to ensure the best possible image to potential customers. Kind of like going to a party with somebody you have relationship problems with. The issues are there under the surface and once you go back home they'll all come back to the surface again.
I wonder what will inspire the next generation of Devs. It used to be my dream until I saw how ruthless employers and your own player base can be.
the same as it was in the beguinning of video games, a bunch of friends with fresh ideas working form their garage
Bruno Novello they just need to learn to stick it to the publishers. Good games WILL succeed. If Cyberpunk puts a link to donate money to help devs, they’ll get it.
Currently studying to be a game dev and the motivation each year goes down because of the shitty work environment,
it’s getting difficult to stay positive
"close to no information" they missed a space
Me before watching the video: "Whatever happened to due process?"
Me after watching the video: "Dear lord, that's terrifying. I hope that game fails, unless the original creators get their IP back."
@youre An idiot Where are you getting this from? European Consumer Law literally puts the consumer first.
@@Dumbrarere Don't fall for the most obvious bait..
And here i though joining an indi studio would be my best option after graduation, i'm not even working in the industry yet and i'm already considering a career shift.
Don't let one bad apple stop you from following your dream.
Consider having a plan b in case shit goes down.
Maybe join them if you heard of them before and you know you can trust them dont just have your dream crushed just because a studio is bad
Is cool when a new generation of console come out so we can get more evolved games but the dark part of this is games are more complicated and takes much longer to make because the capabilities of the hardware. However publishers still want to release the game asap to sell it sooner (and later will come the patches) so the people that work on this games suffers of abuses and corruptions in their work environment. Also players must understand that in the future games will take much longer to make than today, so we can stop being so hasty about asking for the release date of a game.
My counter to this is that while gamers have a ravenous appetite for content, most times we are overly willing to accept release delays if that means the game comes out in a better shape. It's not the consumer that is pushing for annual releases or shorter development time, its investors and shareholders doing so.
Its not customers asking for highly complex game mechanics and high fidelity graphics, fall guy just dropped and people are going insane over it. It's these CEOs and big money firms that have probably never even played a game before, but they look at their little graphs and charts, slam their fists on the table, and demand more return on their investment.
How the hell did this mess make it into state of play
Sony seems to be doing their work half-asleep these days since they moved their Playstation HQ to Commiefornia, remember the animation that was plagiarized and used in one of their promotional videos ... and that weird Life of Black Tiger game that is utter crap being sold on PSN somehow.
@@AscendantStoic "commiefornia" bruuuuuuuh lmao
Sony can't audit every dev and publisher they work with, especially for smaller games, it's not only unfeasible financially, it's probably also unrealistic legally, they're bona fide parties to a contract and can only assume that the counterparty is not doing anything wrong. Sony has probably only become aware of this as soon as everyone else did, especially considering the game is multiplat.
@@HigakiRinne They aren't a new or small company, they can afford to get more people to do even a simple internet search about the people they are working with, if randos on the internet/reddit could figure it out in a day or two (like they did with the plagiarized promotional video) then Sony with all it's resources and connection has NO excuse whatsoever.
@@AscendantStoic "Commiefornia", dude I wish that's what they were lol.
Guess the new name should be Aeon Did Die.
I'll be here all night.
Anon devs should die
-limestone policy A.7 b
Go home
Aeon Must Be Dead Already.
The funny thing is how well the company name describes the situation.
Limestone is a soluble rock. If there is a deposit of it underground and water starts seeping through it, the deposit begins to erode. And if the erosion create a big enough void, it causes a sinkhole.
What happened here is kinda like that.
An erosion caused by corruption and abuse over time.
Eventually leading to what is now a just hollow shell of what was once a decent game development team.
That's what they all say, "we're looking into.." and then hope we forget. They will loose all reputation if what was said is true.
thats what happens if corporate BS starts to loom in your games, hope the same can be said to EA.
This is sad, i hope the developers who quit, will get a new job fast, and the people who are corrupted, will get a hard kick!
I mean, I don't want the evil corrupt people to just lose their company. I want them to die. To be clear, I'm not making any threats, nor am I advocating for anybody to go out and harm them. But car accidents happen every day. Cancer, heart disease, strokes and random acts of violence are just a few random ways people can die totally by chance. I'm just asking God, or karma or whoever you wanna believe in to push a little fatally bad luck their way.
@@billsutherby dude!
I dont think they will, now that the CEO had made darn sure to mark them all with a black mark in their work resume.
Now every western game company will know that these devs can not be exploited, the possibility for revolts is too high.
Wow, I was honestly excited for this game but talk about development hell
This type of story is really sad to hear, but as the games industry becomes more ‘corporate’ (for lack of a better word) I’m afraid we will keep having to hear them. Games, especially at the indie level, used to be passion projects. I wish those devs all the best
I used to have dreams of becoming a game developer one day when I was a teen. Not anymore.
Most developers want to work for the indie scene. You have to be careful and pick where you work, who you work for, and where you work. The indie scene tends to be more caring to its developers, but as we’ve seen, that isn’t always the case.
@@kvjbreaker7054 also i heard nintendo actually treats there employess quite well and it shows
"Marred by corruption" as a demonic character appears. How fitting. :P
Yikes me and the roommate thought this looked rad. A shame it died.
Hey, it was in the title, aeon must die
@@AceWerewolf That doesn't cheer me up at all, in all seriousness I really wanted this to come out.
They should go on Kickstarter. They look competent enough to create a new game. Really sucks to see what they’re going through...
The problem is that they lost the IP. They'd have to start entirely from scratch, and that's difficult to do for a new studio
@@TinPrince without any money + under legal battle too
"close tono" is probably just "close to no"... as in "next to no information" - You were looking at it too complexly, it was just a missing space, it looks like.
Really disappointed with Focus Home Interactive
Even the publishers were corrupted themselves like the CEO.
That's uh... that's always the case. The publishers are 99% of the reason working in games is _always_ a shit show.
@@mawnkey Tell me about it.
I have no words. At least, none that would be appropiate to post.
Honestly dev abuse is so rampant I was taught to prepare for it during animation class. We were expected to crunch for grades, work non stop and I slept under my desk.
Wait, really?
@@AshtonSnapp Yea for the final project half the class camped in the studio, I bought some $2 picnic sheets and slept under my desk.
Can't believe I wanted to go to college to be a game dev. Everything about this industry sucks from a dev standpoint.
It will take people on the inside to create change unless the gov gets involved
So basically...
Aeon Must Die: Hello.
Everyone else: oh hello there!
Aeon Must Die again: GoodBye.
Everyone else: ????
oof
this was one i was interested in
Yeah me too. Too bad
Never work for "under the table" pay. Its a risk to you and your family by not getting paid, its bad for your local and federal government and society, if you lose the job and can't prove you worked, you'll be denied unemployment benefits. Also, no workman's comp if you get injured while working under the table.
Unless you're mowing your grandmas lawn, don't work untaxed.
Or if you work under the table. Pay first then i work. Don't be the sucker.
Gaming has turned into a scummy buissness you would think its a secret government agency
Secret government? Nah that ain't even nessessary, the governments we already publicly live under are corrupt because conservatism and capitalism
@Star Scream Xi Jinping will get his.
@Star Scream dude, China is not the source of everybody's problems, limestone studios is not in China, the problem is capitalism, every single country is corrupt because of corporations, dont pay attention to Donald dip shit when he pretends that China is the issue with the whole world when America is one of the most exploitative, corporate countries right next to China
@Sterling Archer if gamers did care, witcher 3 wouldnt have sold as well
Sterling Archer “Gamers just care”- no. No tf they don’t. This is why these companies exist and will continue to exist,cause gamers complain about their practices while buying their games.
Hell, I'm proud!!! Shit, I support the team! People never WANT to quit their job. Especially if they put so much effort into something. Sounds like the team did the right thing. I wish people of ALL colors & Creed's did the same thing. Companies need to remember their "lower level" workers deserve more than what they're given.
Supporting who exactly?
Oh i see, your that kind of guy
First rule: Cavet Emptor. Always read and understand what your signing.
Besides Crash 4, I was really looking forward to this one. Disappointing and gross. Not sure if it's even a fixable situation, but I would hope for a reckoning so this grotesque behavior is punished and can not be as rampant.
Well, Telltale got back up on their feet right? So, it shouldn't be hard for these guys.
its common for triple A studios to have a lot of corruption
but now an indie studio? gosh. the devs did well by quitting.
The problem is Focus Home Interactive have played party in this, having willingly supported the studio’s action. A lot of the issues would’ve been fixed from the start if FHI had done something.
Indie studios have always been more corrupt or as corrupt as the triple A scene. Lol. This isnt news.
@Johnathan Era
That’s also true, and it’s probably something to do with how tight knit the indie dev circles are.
@@annabella1650 "had done something" What can they do when Limestone and FHI are separate companies?
@Александър Тренчев
A lot of publisher do check in on studios, granted COVID-19 might make it difficult, but when the ex-staff members complained they should’ve taken it seriously.
And I have to wonder how many more of these indie companies are out there seeing as we only see the ones that are reported on.
To clarify, we already know of how bad AAA publishers are, but people tend to look at Indies like they're so much better and ethical. Thing is, no company is ever immune to corruption.
Damn, I just wanna play good games man
One of the Twitter replies is "Young should talk about this" well here you go
Yong
That’s a lot of drop boxes with detailed information on corruption.
their first game ain't even hit the stores and they already make their name heard because of scandal?
all I can say is good luck, you'll need that limestone games
Damn. This game looks really good. Ashamed to hear that it has all of this baggage behind it, hope that the devs get justice and the game could eventually be released.
Even if released, unless a Lawsuit gives the ORIGINAL TEAM their rights to the IP, don't even bother buying.
My take: do not buy unless the original team is the one developing it as an independent indie team
Bozz KingGamer You would still be buying the game knowing all this, you guys are the reason why this type of practices won't stop anytime soon...
Gamers: EA and Ubisoft must be really corrupted
Limestone: Hold my games
EA and Activision*
Living in the bay, no one here gets respect. Even the software engineers are underpaid for the most part, unless you fit into your bosses posey world. People believe that the idea is worth more that everyone bringing that idea to fruition. Everyone being the devs, the people keeping the building running, the people cooking everyone’s food, all replaceable thus, underpaid. When people say that you’ll get paid what your worth, what they really mean is burn my building down because I don’t deserve any of my daddy’s money either. What people really mean when they say, the idea justifies my paycheck, they mean, the guy who already has all the money gets to keep all the incoming money. everyone else at the company barley gets by on pennies and will like it or t the company will find someone else. When are we getting started on this revolution? The devs that make 300k a year don’t actually work. They manage people coding out their hand drawn diagram that they made the night before the presentation. The ones actually using their brains get paid 60k in fucking San Francisco for 4 years until they get laid off and have to starts all over at another company. Before you know it, you’re 47 and starting your 8th career because every single fucking company fires everyone the moment the project is done without ANY WARNING.
Man that is just sad. I feel so sorry for them. Nothing more worse then creating something through hard work to only have it snatched
away. The saddest part is how much money and sacrifice is lost from this effort.
I hope they find some closure from all of this.
Thanks for sharing this story YongYea and keep up the good work with your videos.
Proposing a more easy to read title: "Aeon Must Die" Indie Studio 'Limestone Games' Accused Of Corruption, All The Developers Quit
The letter reads 'close to no information ..' meaning 'almost none'..There was just a gap missing - 'close tono information..'
I’m pretty sure that meant close to no, there just wasn’t a space
Bless you yong for always being one to use your well earned and massive subscription count to bring even more light to corruption and helping start the nessecary conversations, which are helpful to all.
There's way too much corruption and greed in the video games industry these days...
Why does it have to be so hard for people with passion to make good games without greedy CEO's and companies exploiting them to heck...
The game really did live up to it's name, literally.
Almost like game developers should unionize or something.
@Sterling Archer Finally, somebody gets it. Unions destroy companies and everybody suffers because of it.
@Sterling Archer I would gladly pay 10 to 20 Euros more if my games are not made by slave labour.
@Sterling Archer "just look at movies" Because movies are the exact same thing as real life...MORON
@@Seraphim737-l1i Hilarious considering what occurs in Hollywood. In practice, they just outsource the riskier jobs to someone else since it would be too costly to maintain their wellbeing. They take those jobs because they're excited to get their name out by working for big brands.
@Sterling Archer As someone who lives in a country where unions are the de facto standard in pretty much any industry, let me tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about. Any company that raises their prices in response to unionization is merely using it as an excuse (and a scapegoat). The purpose is to instrumentalize the public against said union. They're trying to make their problems your problems, so that you will support their fight against said unions, allowing them to abuse them even more and squeeze more money out of their employees (your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your children, your grandparents, your friends, basically anyone you know, love, or even just cherish). And what do they do with that money? Turn it into fat bonuses for their scumbag executives. You're being played, and you refuse to come to that realization. Because that's what happens when they play you well. It's the companies that are the problem, not the employees. Period. On top of that, those price increases are pretty much irrelevant when everyone ends up earning more. You're increasing everyone's standard of living across the board. That's hardly a bad thing.
When we will finally have some sort of gaming dev union? We really need that shit before we start saying game devs offing themselves.
This is so messed up, I know Aleksei Nehoroshkin though we haven't had any contact for years, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Last time I visited him in Tallinn he showed me some of the designs he had been working on and I remember that awesome art style
I think companies are behind the times. But in this digital ages it's far harder to get away with shady deals. Emails, text, phone calls, etc. Every thing is recorded and saved these days, anything you say can and will be used against you. If not in the court of law, at least in the court of public opinion.
Now this title makes more sense *"Aeon must die"* because it must.
This is shamefull. Well Focus just joined the EA/Activision club :D.
The fact it is ok for them that the dev are NOT paid, crunch all the time is incredible (in a very bad way).
They don't own the dev, the one that pays the employees is Limestone games and not Focus.
@@АлександърТренчев-э2я but they did ignore letters from the developers about the working conditions and are only now looking at the evidence because this got public traction, otherwise they were willing to ignore it.
I've said it for years, I'll continue to say it: this is _not_ the exception in the games industry. This is the *rule.*
_Do not_ work in the games industry if you don't want to work in one of the worst jobs you could ever have.
Apparently focus has done something similar with the spintires team and had rebranded it as mudrunner and giving it to a different team
Stories like these make me so happy to live in a developed country, with labour rights and all that. That being said, I don't understand why the developers don't leave sooner, and find a job in a different industry. Most of them are programmers. Their skills are in extremely high demand. There's more demand than supply. They'll hire anyone who can find a computer's on/off button.
Our country isnt much better.
solution: join devolver digital.
Also tiny build
8:53
Original: "close tono information"
Translation: "close to no information"
one space bar.
on a serious note, im not suprised tbh. its become rare for game companies to do good thing. a lot of companies do good things just to cover up their shady past. ea being one of them.
Oh... well the game looked interesting, even visually. Guess I won't buy it then if this is the story behind it.
A lot of people complain about YongYea's near-constant pessimistic take on the game industry and how so many of his videos are negative. That all he does is read and redistribute other peoples' findings. I for one appreciate that I can see all the scummy stuff I otherwise wouldn't know about in one place. You're doing God's work my man.
To be honest I am starting to believe the apocalypse couldn't come faster.
Limestone to EA - "Notice me, Senpai!"
Ahhh yes. The classic Greater good argument at the expense of everyone's health, hope and dreams as the top just get richer.
The oldest tale in human history.
I think the OG devs should have destroyed all the stuff Limestone Games had regarding Aeon Must Die when the CEO rejected their resignation. It's their property, not Limestone's. Not anymore.
Then they'd get sued, and would probably lose.
It's almost like the whole system is fucked.
Bad idea from a legal standpoint
Damn this really need to be known by more people. I first saw this game long time ago and almost forgot about it, but it certainly looks like a good game. But now I don't wanna support it at all! Hope the original team can find new passionate projects to work on and get what their talents deserve!
I really hope Sony will refuse to put that game on their store
Only on Google stadia would be nice so no one plays it
They wont