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Ashes of Creation director Steven Sharif has hit out at alleged “coordinated attacks” against him and his studio, Intrepid Studios, insisting recent claims about the company’s finances were “completely false and already faltering under judicial review,” and calling the drama “one of the craziest stories gaming has ever seen.”
Earlier this week, the public fallout of ill-fated MMO Ashes of Creation continued, this time with an alleged full breakdown of Intrepid Studios’ expenses. It painted “a troubling picture of a company that was on the threshold of financial death at multiple points in its history,” and revealed millions of dollars allegedly spent on dubious purchases. Sharif has disputed the claims.
YouTuber NefasQS claimed to have “obtained and processed the entire Intrepid Studios general ledger from 2015 to 2026,” and to have corroborated documents and records that “help us finally finish most of what remains of the mystery surrounding Ashes of Creation and the implosion of Intrepid Studios.” He published the full ledger online and uploaded a video discussing some of the details, including “the interesting numbers ranging from mysterious withdrawals by John Moore (former Intrepid CEO Steven Sharif’s husband) to the costs of game development, especially when it comes to outsourcing.”
NefasQS’s claims were damning. The video alleged his team had uncovered evidence of a “lavish lifestyle,” with $220,066.46 spent on DoorDash, $48,568 on antiques, $21,000 for a personal chef, $8717.15 on plants, $15,981.70 on movie theater tickets, $595,098.83 on Amazon orders, $21,346 on Magic the Gathering cards, and $2,200 on hotdogs. $81,166 was reportedly also provided to Gore Oil, the company that appears to own Sharif and Moore’s $4.9 million San Diego mansion, which they bought in 2020.
How did we get here? Well, back in February, Valve quietly withdrew Ashes of Creation from sale after its director and leadership team quit just weeks after it launched as a $50 Early Access game on Steam. At the time, Sharif said “much of” the senior dev team had quit “in protest,” claiming the management board had asked him to do things he “could not ethically support.” We then learned the “entire” development team was laid off without notice or their January paychecks, and, last month, a court in San Diego issued a temporary restraining order in Sharif’s favor against Intrepid’s Board of Directors, led by Chair Rob Dawson, and their affiliated entity, TFE Games Holdings LLC.
Since then, however, the court found no cause for a preliminary injunction, and the temporary restraining order expired, given “the trade secrets are returned to Intrepid and there [were] no longer serious questions going to the merits on the appropriation of trade secrets claims.”
Now, in a statement and an 11-page document posted to Discord, Sharif blasted the “flood of speculation, misinformation, and coordinated attacks surrounding me, Intrepid Studios, and Ashes of Creation,” and called for fans to dismiss “these lies” that he insisted were “completely false and already faltering under judicial review.”
“I know the public discourse around me, Intrepid, and Ashes of Creation has been flooded with knives-out narratives driven by a coordinated defamation campaign orchestrated by the opposing parties in my lawsuit,” Sharif wrote. “That campaign has been amplified through content creators, including those serving as a mouthpiece for [one of the game’s investors], a known violent individual with multiple prior arrests.
“Do not mistake noise for truth. If you genuinely care about what happened to Ashes of Creation and Intrepid Studios, and this is not directed at the casual observer, I ask that you take a moment to read today’s court filings. In them, I have included more than 45 exhibits consisting of texts, emails, internal communications, and witness testimony from six individuals with firsthand knowledge of the events as they unfolded. I understand that creators can be easier to consume and more entertaining to watch, but some are chasing headlines and clicks, not accuracy, context, or the truth which can only be found reliably in court.”
In the 11-page report, Sharif appended snippets of filings, exhibits, and witness statements, writing “they will shock you, but they are a true and accurate record of what occurred to Intrepid and why.”
“As alleged in our federal complaint, and further supported by the sworn declarations and documentary evidence now filed with the Court, the Board defendants, led by Chairman Rob Dawson, engineered a plan to seize control of Intrepid’s assets for their own benefit through threats, coercion, deception, and unlawful self-dealing with zero regard for the company they destroyed and the human lives damaged by their illegal conduct,” Sharif alleged.
“That plan involved starving a viable company of cash to manufacture a default, using fear and leverage to force signatures and concessions, terminating more than 200 people while stripping them of wages, benefits, and accrued obligations, leaving vendors and creditors high and dry, and then using the crisis they created to justify a foreclosure designed to transfer Intrepid’s assets and intellectual property into an entity controlled by Robert Dawson.”
Sharif claimed that the only reason the injunction relief was not granted was because “the defendants abruptly reversed course and attempted to undo their own foreclosure.” “They tried to put the assets back after the theft was exposed,” he alleged.
“I have the receipts. I have the texts. I have the emails. I have the internal documents,” he added. “And the people who were present and aware of exactly what these individuals were doing while they lied publicly about it, just spoke up in today’s filings.”
Sharif said he “tried to keep the peace” for the sake of his team and their families, and “for the millions of players waiting for Ashes.” “I did so at the expense of my own health, my own safety, and my own peace of mind. But there is a line. And that line was crossed when their conduct showed complete disregard for the human beings under my leadership.”
“As founder of Intrepid, and the original creator of Ashes of Creation, I also personally want to say that I am sorry,” he added. “I took on people who represented that they wanted to help build Ashes and support its future. I did not know they would ultimately try to destroy it and seize it for themselves. But hear me clearly: I will not let that be the ending of this story.”
He closed by appending a Q&A document, answering questions such as, “For the last 10 years, you claimed there was no board to answer to. When did that change? Was there always a board? Were you lying?” (“No”), “Why didn’t you inform the community when that change happened,” (because doing so “would have triggered immediate consequences”), and, “Why did you approve the Steam early access launch, and why did you say the company wasn’t out of money?” (Because “based on the information I was given at the time, the company was not out of money.”)
Sharif closed his statement with: “They did not expect that I would challenge their actions as aggressively, and successfully, as I have. They were wrong. I hope this post and the documents below help to provide some answers for those interested in knowing and seeing the truth.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
