You know what; there's too many games getting thrown at us this year. Without the structure and sanitation of a schedule, we've been bombarded with gaming events for 3 months straight and I- look, I don't even remember what game was announced at what event anymore, okay? Was this an Xbox game? Sony? Independent?- If a game falls down in the woods where no one heard it then did it make any sound at all? (By the way, of course it does. Never understood that 'riddle'. Sure, it's supposed to be existential or whatever, but there's much more profound statements on imperceptibility and consequence. Take Dark Souls' larger narrative for exa-) Wait, what was I talking about again? Right, video games. There's so many of them that you really need some sort of special story to make your game stand out, something wild and out there which get's your game's title in the headlines and turns your head. Something like 'Aeon Must Die' did.
Except nothing like what 'Aeon Must Die' did, because that trainwreck of a situation is sure to give a profound effect on how this game, and studio, survives going into the next year. (Remember boyos and girls, all publicity absolutely is not good publicity. Only idiots with broken moral compasses think that's the case.) I'm being serious when I say that the absolutely state of the conversation surrounding this game is probably one of the worst cases that a small game studio ever wants to be in, and I am fascinated to see what becomes of it all. But what's more than that, I'm also a little heartbroken at it does mean we might never get to witness the gem-of-a-title that this could've turned out to be. But before we dive into the drama, how about I tease the game that was meant to be so that you can feel as bummed out as I do.
First up I must mention, the reveal trailer for this game looks unfairly beautiful. It's dripping in that neon metal aesthetic that looks as though that iconic 80's animation edge never got swallowed up by Disney's overly wholesome takeover. (Am I blaming Disney for the death of Heavy Metal's legacy? Yes, yes I am.) The game has this sharp dystopian heartbeat running through it, punctuated with cyborg suits, buzzing energy accents with warm colours, and a comic-book dynamism to it all that makes the action feel alive and vibrant. There's even that sense of over-the-top melodrama that I thought was long lost to the realm of Anime, still beating in the heart of a title like this, seeped in the pangs of an electric guitar. Quite simply, this is an aesthetic that I don't think anyone was expecting to see again out of the animation world, bought to the modern age with all of it's bells and whistles. Even as this turns out to be just a beat-em-up in content, (a genre I've never really been in love with) I'd be a fool not to respect the passion in all of it.
And yes, the story is just as OTT as the visuals. (Would you have it any other way?) Aeon, the emperor of the Void armada, has been attacked in an attempted assassination attempt that left him without a body. Luckily he has transferred his consciousness into your body and is now embarking on a classic tale of revenge against all those that wronged him for the chance to sit on the throne as the dread emperor once more. Nothing deeper or existential about that, just a pure style narrative of vengeance that perfectly compliments the genre and world that's been built. Violence, decadence and monochromatic environments all spun together in a bloody loom for our entertainment and delight. Long story short, this is a game that looked like it had the makings of becoming an unreserved cult classic, but judging by the skewered like-ratio on the trailer, I think it's safe to say that those dreams are in the process of being scuppered. Buying this game now is little more than a testament stating that you support toxicity and abuse, and that's a reputation sure to hurt first day sales.
The tale began with the release of the trailer of Aeon Must Die which, unbeknown to the public, was the last straw in a long-line of transgressions. At the same time as the trailer was being released to Youtube, another cut of the trailer surfaced online with the title "Aeon Must Die (Original Version) TRUTH IN THE DESCRIPTION". Now that's a eye-grabber if ever I've seen it, and for once this isn't a clickbait title. In said description were laid a great many accusations, such as that the trailer was produced with "abuse, manipulation and theft", that "people who have worked on every shot of this (trailer) are no longer with the company holding IP rights" and that some employees straight "Were not even paid for their work." So it's safe to say that these are some serious accusations that one does not make lightly, and this would be cause for some serious scepticism had this new trailer not handily come attached with an entire google doc's worth of receipts.
Now, admittedly, a lot of what was discussed in the enclosed documents was all about IP disputes and, not to undermine what these folk went through, I'm just not in the exact right state of mind to go into the ins and outs of legal rules right now, maybe tomorrow; but I think I got the general gist of things down. (That handily comprehensive 'Intro' helped) As far as I can tell there was some issues involving a seemingly endless amount of crunch and unpayed work that turned out to be just unbearable for the development team working on the game in question. They tried to get some legal help to figure everything out and discovered that the company and entire IP was covertly taken from the founder. Attempt were made to reach an accord and they were ultimately shut down by management and shareholders. So after that they made a hailmary to try and reach out to the publisher and that's when things really got out of hand.
Focus Home Interactive, the publishers of AMD, completely swallowed the call for help that they were sent and simply chose to do nothing, except for narc on the developers to their boss. This, predictably, resulted in threats of firing and lawsuits levied against the team in an attempt to twist their arms into quiet subservience. The entire team had handed in their resignation letters at the time, but in the light of this betrayal Limestone games saw fit to fire them before their resignation date, which certainly has the potential for some legal ramifications if the team can confirm it's true. They were met with another gauntlet when the publisher finally got in contact with the team and asked for proof of Limestone's doings. This effort led to the compiling of many documents, a few of which are comprised in the google doc that is now in the public eye. The result? A call wherein the publisher claimed to have processed little to none of the information they were given and decided to basically tell the team to get back to work and finish the game. This is in spite of the impending Playstation state-of-play in which AMD was scheduled to show despite the entire team being fired and there being an ongoing struggle of IP regarding the footage. They were left on their own.
Now all the team are left with is to go public with everything that they legally can right now and hope for the best, whilst maybe opening themselves up to a libel suit while they're at it. Focus Home Interactive has handled this sort of public negative press before, but judging from their seeming inherent lethargy the biggest issue won't come from them. (Every controversy regarding them has to do with the studio's inability to do so much as a phone call or write up a document. This office must be comprised of actual sloths or something.) Limestone games, on the otherhand, have been waving around lawsuit threats like it's going out of style, so things have the potential to become really messy in the days to come. All this is bearing in mind that we haven't even heard Limestone's side of the story. (although I've been in enough toxic work environments to guess that it's going to be imprecise waffle with no merit and absolutely nothing substantial to justify or refute these accusations. That's just how these sorts of people operate.) Whatever happens, a whole slew of reputations have been tarnished within the space of a week and a promising looking game has the stench of taboo permanently ingrained on it's record. Sometimes the gaming industry really sucks to be around, you know.
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