An hour ago, Limestone Games revealed a new trailer for their title, Aeon Must Die. The trailer was a part of Sony’s PlayStation 5 State of Play stream. But almost immediately afterwards, strong allegations against Limestone Games sprung up online.
An individual known as Erikki Poots uploaded a series of documents on Dropbox, alleging that the trailer shown was made with ‘abuse, manipulation, and theft’, and that the IP itself had been stolen.
“Sony’s State of Play is happening on the 6th of August,” An introduction document in the Dropbox reads. “One of the planned announcements is “Aeon Must Die!” (AMD), a game created by people who in June of 2020 were forced to leave their former studio Limestone Games along with its founder/creative director. Their reasons were unbearable work conditions with endless crunch, harassment, abuse, corruption, and manipulation. When the team acquired an attorney to figure out the truth behind all the conflicting information and pressure, it was also discovered that the company and the entire IP was covertly taken from the founder. Multiple attempts at establishing dialogue and remedying the situation internally were shut down by the management and majority shareholders.”
Respawning will keep an eye on this breaking story, and will update you when Limestone responds. The trailer at the centre of the controversy may be seen below.