The public fallout of ill-fated MMO Ashes of Creation continues, this time with an alleged full breakdown of Intrepid Studios’ expenses, revealing “a troubling picture of a company that was on the threshold of financial death at multiple points in its history” and millions of dollars allegedly spent on dubious purchases.
YouTuber NefasQS claimed to have “obtained and processed the entire Intrepid Studios general ledger from 2015 to 2026,” as well as corroborating 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.”
Sharif has disputed the claims.
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. Game’s director Steven Sharif said “much of” the senior dev team had quit “in protest,” claiming that its management board had asked him to do things he “could not ethically support.” According to Sharif, the Board then issued WARN Act notices — layoff warnings, in other words — to the remaining staff.
According to a new public record request, we now know that the formal WARN Act notification was issued on January 31 and indicated that 210 employees were “affected” by the filing, 123 of whom worked in California.
As unhappy players fought to get refunds out of Steam, an update from one of the studio’s directors claimed the “entire” development team was reportedly laid off without notice or their January paychecks. Then, last month, Sharif said he had won the first leg of his legal battle against Intrepid’s Board of Directors, led by Chair Rob Dawson, and their affiliated entity, TFE Games Holdings LLC, claiming “breaches of fiduciary duty, violations of federal and state trade secret laws, and wrongful efforts to seize company assets, including its valuable IP, through an unlawful and manufactured insider foreclosure.” The San Diego court has issued a temporary restraining order in Sharifs favor against Dawson.
NefasQS allegedly uncovered evidence of a “lavish lifestyle” that’s “worse than you think,” claiming Intrepid spent $220.066.46 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 allegedly 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.
“[A] notable thing about the numbers we see in the ledger is that without the cash injections from various loans, creditors, and investors, Ashes of Creation — or rather Intrepid Studios — would have been bankrupt multiple times,” MefasQS alleged.
“You’ll see a $450,000 deposit from a creditor or investor, and that same day, John [Moore] or somebody else […] will take out amounts that vary anywhere between $750 to $300,000 that are labelled as ‘shareholder loans’ in the QuickBooks data. You also see the opposite, where money is taken out, but then put back in the same day or week in the same amount.”
The video also claimed that both John Moore and Steven Sharif’s compensation almost doubled in 2024, going from around $245,864 and $207,922 to $476,738 and $396,768, respectively.
Sharif refuted the claims, telling Kotaku: “An examination of the facts through the judicial process has already revealed that the parties behind these claims orchestrated an unlawful foreclosure to take control of Intrepid’s assets from the people who built Ashes of Creation, with the intent to exploit those assets for their own benefit.
“NefasQS has been fed false and defamatory information by individuals with an axe to grind, in an effort to litigate this dispute in the public domain alongside our lawsuit already pending in federal court,” he added. “Rather than verify those claims, he has chosen to repeat them, acting as a mouthpiece to advance a narrative that drives clicks and views, with disregard for basic journalistic standards.”
The video is still live at the time of writing, although NefasQS said “someone already filed a privacy complaint against this video, just a head’s up, but we will be disputing it. Someone also reported my Reddit account from our community subreddit to the admins.” Some commenters have also reported being banned from the Ashes of Creation Discord server for sharing a link to NefasQS’s video.
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.
