Oriand the Will of the Wisps developer Moon Studios has come under fire over allegations of housing an oppressive place to work. Developers who have been part of both Ori and the WIll of the Wisps, as well as Ori and the Blind Forest, accuse the company of rampant sexism, racism, crunch culture, and a host of other issues.
Launched back in 2010 by Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol, Moon Studios found success in the form of 2015's Ori and the Blind Forest. This was followed by Ori and the Will of the Wisps five years later. Now, as the studio works on its next release, Forsaken, it's facing a barrage of accusations from developers over how its oppressive culture is nurturing a highly problematic environment for its workforce. According to a lengthy report from Gamesbeat, much of these accusations are centered around the studio's founders.
Following suit similar to Activision Blizzard's toxic culture issues, the list of allegations includes constant arguments, antisemitism, sexism, racism, bullying, and a crunch culture to name a few. Developers state that the company's public chats were never short of offensive and unprofessional remarks from Mahler and Korol ranging from inappropriate comments about women to Hitler jokes.
Even when it comes to game development matters, developers accuse that while the founders constantly pushed for quality, the team would find conflicting/unclear directions from the duo. This would often lead to crunch. Furthermore, positive feedback was seemingly a rarity from Mahler and Korol. "In Skype chats, they would say ‘you f*****g idiot’ and things like that on an hourly basis," says one developer. Another developer is quoted saying, "It's an oppressive workplace, for sure. But it’s hard to pinpoint one thing because, in isolation, all of these incidents, if they happen once, you would think they are small things".
The studio's issues also extend to Microsoft which Moon Studios has worked with for about a decade. The tech giant has had a strained relationship with Moon over the years, though many of these issues amounted to missed deadlines from the studio, funding delays, and regularly changing project scopes. In this backdrop, Moon is currently working on its Forsaken game and won't be partnering with Xbox. Instead, it has Take-Two Interactive’s Private Division as the publisher.
Following the report of allegations against the Ori and the Blind Forest developer, Mahler and Korol have since responded in a lengthy statement. An excerpt of it reads, "We don’t believe the experiences suggested by your questions are representative of the more than 80 Moon Studios team members who are thriving and doing great work every day — nor do we believe they are representative of the experiences of former members of our team. In fact, we are very proud of our history of making people happy, advancing their careers, and contributing to their financial success."
The allegations against Ori and the Will of the Wisps developer Moon Studios is only the latest among a growing list of abusive work cultures within the gaming industry. Other high-profile entities like Ubisoft, Riot Games, EA's DICE, and Sony PlayStation have faced similar accusations. It remains to be seen how things will transpire for Moon Studios in the coming future.
Source: Gamesbeat