Although the game Aeon Must Die was one of the shining stars of Sony’s event, we’ve seen more than a simple, innocent trailer…

Lovers of 2D might have been happy last night because they’ve made a real delicacy for them at Sony…

So what was this delicacy cooked from? And how? We’ll talk about that a little later…

Aeon Must Die has become, on its own merits, one of the great protagonists of Sony’s State of Play last night, and it is that of all the games that have been presented this title has turned out to be the most striking.

It is a 2D action adventure with a very careful aesthetic and musical invoice, one of the great surprises of the event since a title of these characteristics was not expected at the conference of the Japanese company.

All Aeon Must Die devs quit the studio this week due to crunch and lack of payments, and the trailer was outsourced to artists without contracts. @jasonschreier https://t.co/lmYLy3vRwp pic.twitter.com/ugmKsxhAHb

— doom scroller extraordinaire (@calibrono) August 6, 2020

In the video game we play the very Aeon that gives the title its name, and we embark on the classic story of revenge where we must fight to give what is deserved to all those who betrayed us. We will go through the city of Pantheon trying to advance in this game with tactical combat and progression with RPG elements.

The video game is confirmed for the year 2021, without a more specific date, and will appear on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch and, technologically, it has also announced that it uses the Unreal Engine tool for its graphic and technological section.

The premiere of the title has been notably applauded among fans, however there has been something that has notably clouded the moment of its announcement. Almost at the same time, some information has emerged that refers to a possible case of crunch and non-payment to its employees. From this link you can take a look at the complete information that emerged through a series of documents leaked by former members of the studio in which they speak of all kinds of abuses by their chief executive.

A huge amount of information released last night seems to demonstrate serious problems in the development of the game.

The night promised to be happy for Aeon Must Die, and the video game for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch was announced at the State of Play event and left a formidable taste in the mouth among fans who saw its trailer. Within moments of its premiere, however, a number of sources have published abundant information about the production of the title, one that seems to point to a more than troubled development.

Serious accusations of non – payment or crunch occur in the documentation provided, where several members of Limestone Games studio, based in Estonia, claim to have abandoned it after suffering all kinds of abuse by the team’s management.

The information has been made public on Twitter by the user @calibrono, who claims not to speak in the name of the studio. “I am not affiliated with Limestone Studio, I simply found the link to all this documentation in the description of a YouTube trailer that came out at the same time as the announcement,” he assured 3DJuegos.

The video he’s talking about is the one you can see from this link and also below, an original version of the trailer that is virtually identical to the one shown at the event, but has the following message at the end. ” Discover the truth about the development of this video game “, linking viewers to take a look at the description of the video.

There you will find a series of very extensive and exhaustive documents that explains in detail all the abuses suffered by the development team of Aeon Must Die during the production of the title. “Aeon Must Die was a game created by a group of people who in June 2020 made the decision to protest their situation in the Limestone Games studio together with its founder. The reasons were unbearable working conditions, abuse, corruption, manipulation and an endless crunch “, they explain in the introduction in which they charge against the CEO of the studio, Yaroslav Lyssenko.

As they state, on June 22 the members of the studio sent a letter to the chief with the signatures of the entire team. It “asked the publisher for cooperation to end the game in human terms and deliver a title of the highest quality possible.” The publisher’s response was “a short email, and a long silence for almost a month,” while the studio’s CEO sent “threatening letters” to members of the company who had signed their resignation letter but ended up being fired before that it became effective.

Employees were not paid yet

“After a month, and with the help of their lawyer, the team finally gets the publisher to ask for evidence to confirm their multiple allegations,” they continue. “Weeks pass and in early August the team begins to urge the editor to at least respond to the team regarding their future. Among the many transgressions described in the documents provided, the team also informs the editor that the trailer that is about to be released infringes the intellectual property of the people who have worked on it and who were not paid yet. ”

They explain that the actions of the CEO during all this time were oriented to lengthen the entire process as far as possible to finish the video game at any price, with “the least possible expense to criminal extremes “, and to achieve a series of goals that no longer has anaything to do with anyone on the project’s creative team.

All the documentation provided in the dropbox folder includes email transcripts (and screenshots) as well as audios with tests by the development team to demonstrate their accusations. Likewise, there are up to 13 more folders with the testimonies of the different members of the study, as well as other folders in which the illegal software that was provided to them for the production of Aeon Must Die is specified, and that includes supposedly pirated copies of software like Photoshop, Maya, or Adobe Premiere…

Source: 3DJuegos, 3DJuegos

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