The investor claims that the studio had been hiding financial problems for years.
Earlier this month, Intrepid Studios, the developer of the fantasy MMORPG Ashes of Creation, announced its bankruptcy. This happened less than two months after the game's release in Steam Early Access and raised questions from investors and fans.
As it turned out, the project had been in a difficult financial situation for a long time. One of the investors, Jason Karamanis, accused the studio's founder, Steven Sharif, of years of financial fraud. In an interview with blogger NefasQS, he stated that he personally lost $12.5 million. According to his estimates, the total amount of funds raised could reach $140 million, including private investments, a Kickstarter campaign, and loans.
Karamanis claims that Sharif publicly stated that he had invested between $30 and $60 million of his own funds, but accounting documents allegedly do not confirm these investments. At the same time, according to him, Sharif and CFO John Moore received about $500,000 a year in salary. The investor also claims that the company did not provide full financial statements and did not hold board meetings, despite obligations to investors.
According to the data provided, by 2025, the studio's monthly expenses exceeded $2.5 million, with revenue from in-game purchases at the level of $150-200 thousand. Salary delays began at the end of 2024. In addition, cloud provider SADA Systems filed a lawsuit to recover more than $850,000 for unpaid Google Cloud services. Despite this, in December 2025, the game was released in Steam Early Access and, according to estimates, brought in $3 to $5 million in revenue.
According to Karamanis, Sharif directed about $3.7 million of this revenue to repay a bank loan taken against his personal real estate. This deprived the company of funds to pay salaries and accelerated the closure of the studio.
Steven Sharif has not publicly commented on the allegations. He previously stated that he left the post of creative director after "control over the company passed to the board of directors," with whose decisions he did not agree. Shortly after his departure, a significant part of the management resigned, and the remaining employees received mass layoff notices.
According to Karamanis, the rights to intellectual property passed to the largest investor, Robert Dawson, who invested about $80 million. He also claims that some key employees refused to cooperate with the new management. This may explain Sharif's earlier statements about the dismissal of the team after the change of control over the company.
The fate of Ashes of Creation remains uncertain.
