What Happened to Ashes of Creation?

What happens when the entire company working on a newly released game is let go? Players of Ashes of Creation are wondering just that. Find out more below. Also, Epic discusses their 2025 statistics. Check them out along with all the latest gaming news. Let’s go!

Ashes of a game

Ashes of Creation entered Early Access on Steam in December 2025. The long-awaited MMORPG raised nearly $3.2 million on Kickstarter from 20,000 backers in 2017. After over eight years, people were finally able to play the game they had backed. 

Their joy would quickly become dismay, as Intrepid Studios, the company making the game, shut down last week without any warning. 

Ashes of Creation had received negative reviews since its launch, with one publication saying the game was playable and ambitious, but nowhere near ready. News broke last week that game director Steven Sharif had resigned, stating on the game’s Discord:

Control of the company shifted away from me, and the Board began directing actions that I could not ethically agree with or carry out. As a result, I chose to resign in protest rather than lend my name or authority to decisions I could not ethically support. Following my resignation, much of the senior leadership team resigned. Following those departures, the Board made the decision to issue WARN Act notices and proceed with a mass layoff.

Several individuals who worked on the game say they were blindsided by layoffs, and that they have not received their final paychecks. Amidst all the turmoil, Ashes of Creation was removed from sale from Steam’s storefront while the company investigates what happened. 

So what will happen with the game? A recent post on the Ashes of Creation website says the development team will provide new details on Twitch Feb. 13. With no information about who is still part of the development team, this should be an interesting update.

Epic’s year in review

Epic posted their 2025 Year in Review last week. The application most people use to launch Fortnite provided some interesting figures about the status of their online storefront and sales, including:

• The Epic Game Store had 78 million monthly users who logged over 6.65 billion total gameplay hours in 2025.
• Players spent over $1.16 billion on games and content on the Epic Game Store last year.
• Their store now contains over 6,000 games. 
• Epic’s free game program gave away 100 titles in 2025, with users claiming 662 million games. 
• Epic’s top priority for 2026 is rebuilding their storefront, with their store General Manager Steve Allison saying “we're ripping out the guts of the Epic Games Launcher on PC.”

You can check out the full report, which includes some great infographics. In other news, Epic says they plan for their game store to launch on the next generation of Xbox console, which according to AMD could release in 2027.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🎤 The latest singer to join Fortnite: Chappell Roan.

📈 The Switch is Nintendo’s best selling video game system ever, selling over 155 million units and passing the Nintendo DS.

💰 Roblox recorded significant growth in 2025, reaching $4.9 billion in revenue. 

☹️ Valve confirmed that the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are being delayed due to RAM shortages. 

🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 Nintendo held a partner showcase. Check out everything announced for the Switch and Switch 2. 

🦸🏿‍♀️ Overwatch 2 is rebranding as “Overwatch” and adding five new heroes to the game. 

♥️ Poker Night at the Inventory is coming back to Steam in March after a seven-year absence, and will include Team Fortress 2 unlockables.

🤖 Sony patented the creation of AI-generated podcasts starring video game characters. 

🚀 After missing targets for their most recent release, Obsidian says there are no plans for an Outer World 3.

📅 Nvidia reportedly pushed back the release of their RTX 60-series cards and doesn’t plan to release any new graphics cards this year, thanks to the memory shortage caused by AI. 

⛔ Take-Two has paused development on their Switch 2 port of Borderlands 4. 

💿 Take-Two also denied Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch as a digital-only release.

📺 Baldur’s Gate is being made into a television series for HBO. 

📊 Sony says sales of Ghost of Yotei are outperforming its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima.

🏈 The latest video game-to-movie announcement confuses us too: a Tecmo Bowl movie is reportedly in the works. 

New Releases this week:

Check out our article on 10 New Games to Play in February.

2/10: Crisol: Theater of Idols (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
2/10: Mewgenics (PC)
2/10: Relooted (Xbox and PC)
2/11: Romeo is a Dead Man (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
2/12: Mario Tennis Fever (Switch)
2/13: High on Life 2 (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
2/13: Reanimal (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)

Thanks for reading. If you enjoy our newsletter, please tell a friend to subscribe!