Ashes of Creation shuts down shortly after Steam arrival and raising millions from MMORPG fans, and they want answers (and money back)

Intrepid Studios has apparently shut down, leaving MMORPG fans wondering if they will get their refund after supporting Ashes of Creation.

The promising game was announced in 2016 and has been in development ever since. While there was no firm release date, it moved to Early Access in December 2025 and arrived on Steam. This launch was extremely messy, but it’s safe to say that the crowdfunded MMORPG had tons of support and excitement over its unique and detailed content.

Intrepid Studios appears to shut down over the weekend

Over the weekend, sharp-eyed gamers noticed that many Intrepid Studios employees had changed their LinkedIn status to “Open For Work.” A telling post from Director of Communications and Marketing Margaret Krohn on January 31st said the “chapter was coming to a close.” After emotionally thanking the Ashes of Creation community, she said she doesn’t “have the words” and this “wasn’t what [she] expected.”

This was followed by a Discord message from Intrepid Studios’ CEO and founder Steven Sharif that essentially solidified the studio’s closing. He said that “control of the company” had shifted away from him and the board was making decisions he “could not ethically agree” with.

“As a result, I chose to resign in protest rather than lend my name or authority to decisions I could not ethically support,” Sharif wrote to fans. “Following my resignation, much of the senior leadership team resigned.”

This led the board to make mass layoffs. Sharif didn’t want to go into further detail since there are ongoing legal matters between him and the board. However, he told the let-down players that he was “incredibly dismayed” by how it all went down.

On February 2nd, the studio will send a WARN Act to all employees, letting them go and shutting down operations. Meanwhile, payroll scheduled for February 1st was allegedly unable to be processed due to the company’s financial constraints.

In late 2025, Ballard Spahr of Sara Systems LLC issued an $850,000 lawsuit against Intrepid Studios. The cloud provider is alleging that Intrepid Studios has nearly $1 million in unpaid fees. As speculations began that Ashes of Creation was a possible near-debt scam that jumped onto Discord in a last-ditch effort to make more money from gamers, Sharif claimed that contract disputes are “common” in business. He said that the matter will likely be dissolved.

This comment didn’t silence the concerns, however, with the gaming community continuing to debate if the studio had money or not. While Sharif is allegedly a millionaire who has funded the project with his own money for the past near-decade, many couldn’t help but wonder if Ashes of Creation was a scam as time went on, especially as players sunk more and more money into the game ahead of its release.

Ashes of Creation raised millions from fans, but where did it go?

Ever since Ashes of Creation was announced, it’s been a crowdfunded game despite Sharif’s alleged fortune. From 2016 to 2017, the Kickstarter campaign raised over $3.2 million from 19,576 backers. This far surpassed the original goal of $750K, yet the “grifting” continued.

Ahead of the game’s Early Access, players could purchase packages at several tiers. About 10,000 players purchased the highest-tier package at $500, while about 100K opted for the $250 package, for a total of $25 million in revenue. Years ago, when these packages were introduced, the gaming community was quite torn. Some felt the game had a lot of promise, while others felt it was a money-making scam that offered skins well before it even launched.

Welp, it kept going. At one point, Sharif announced that Ashes of Creation made over $45 million from in-game cosmetics. A lot of players were put off by the number of skin pack purchases available so early into the game’s creation. It just left a bad taste in some gamers’ mouths, feeling as though developers were pushing skins constantly when the game was still far from its release.

The game was rushed onto Steam after nearly 10 years of waiting (and buying skins) while it was still in its Alpha stage. It cost $50, which means those sales also gave Sharif a few more millions. Despite this, the game has imploded a little over 50 days after its Early Access launch.

Now, a lot of players are wondering if pushing the game onto Steam was a last-ditch effort to get more money from hopeful fans as the studio floundered. Despite the hype and anticipation, Ashes of Creation only reached 31.8K peak players, but its estimated sales are between 220K and 320K.

Ashes of Creation crowdfunders wonder if they will get their money back after shut down

In the original Kickstarter campaign from 2016 to 2017, Sharif promised to refund all backers in full if the game didn’t launch. While this was not a legally binding statement, many gamers are wondering whether Sharif rushed to release the game on Steam to get around the previous statement. Now that the game has made it to Steam, albeit unfinished, Sharif wouldn’t feel morally obligated to give back the millions his studio made from it.

On social media, Ashes of Creation backers are still demanding a refund. A lot of gamers spent thousands on the game, between the $500 package and in-game cosmetics. While others are calling these backers “suckers” for supporting a game that seemed so blatantly suspicious, it still hasn’t taken the heat off Sharif.

At this point, it doesn’t seem likely that Ashes of Creation supporters will get any of their money back. It’s perfectly legal for a Kickstarter project to shut down even after raising money, although if there is proven misconduct, a refund could be possible. However, this level of grift – going on 10 years – seems pretty tricky to navigate and legally prove.

This reminds me of another crowdfunded game that was announced in 2017, Em-8ER. Former World of Warcraft team lead Mark “Grummz” Kern has been repeatedly called out on social media for failing to deliver promised updates, with players wondering where all the raised money has gone. It’s another MMORPG that gave players hope – enough hope to spend a good amount of money – and then never came to be.

The lesson I’m learning personally? Don’t participate in MMORPG crowdfunding.