{"id":12123,"date":"2026-02-03T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/02\/03\/steam-quietly-withdraws-under-fire-mmo-ashes-of-creation-from-sale-as-fans-wonder-whos-left-to-maintain-the-servers\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:00:17","slug":"steam-quietly-withdraws-under-fire-mmo-ashes-of-creation-from-sale-as-fans-wonder-whos-left-to-maintain-the-servers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/02\/03\/steam-quietly-withdraws-under-fire-mmo-ashes-of-creation-from-sale-as-fans-wonder-whos-left-to-maintain-the-servers\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam Quietly Withdraws Under Fire MMO Ashes of Creation From Sale As Fans Wonder Who&#8217;s Left to Maintain the Servers"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"article-page\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/2025\/11\/13\/ashesofcreationreturntoverratrailer-ign-blogroll-1763076637944.jpg\" \/>\n<section data-transform=\"mobile-ad-break\"><\/section>\n<p>Steam has quietly withdrawn under fire MMO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/ashes-of-creation\"><u>Ashes of Creation<\/u><\/a> from sale after its director and leadership team quit just weeks after launch.<\/p>\n<p>Ashes of Creation was funded by a hugely successful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1791529601\/ashes-of-creation-new-mmorpg-by-intrepid-studios\"><u>$3.2 million Kickstarter campaign back in 2017<\/u><\/a>. It finally released in December as a $50 <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/4124950\/Ashes_of_Creation\/\"><u>Early Access game on Steam<\/u><\/a>, but by the end of January, the game&#8217;s director, Steven Sharif, and &#8220;much of&#8221; the senior dev team quit &#8220;in protest,&#8221; claiming that its management board had asked him to do things he &#8220;could not ethically support.&#8221; According to Sharif, the Board then issued WARN Act notices \u2014 layoff warnings, in other words \u2014 to the remaining staff. It&#8217;s unclear how many employees remain employed or who sits on this mysterious board.<\/p>\n<p>Although Sharif posted a brief statement explaining why he quit in the game&#8217;s Discord community, he has not posted anything since. Given the comments, memes, and inappropriate comments flooding every channel, the Discord itself seems wholly unmoderated now. <\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"ignvideo\" data-slug=\"ashes-of-creation-official-the-return-to-verra-trailer\" data-loop=\"\"><\/section>\n<p>Head over to the Ashes of Creation page on Steam now, however, and you&#8217;ll see that the button to buy has been quietly removed. Conversely, the game&#8217;s website is still live and accepting payment for cosmetics, but a notice at the top reads: &#8220;delivery of cosmetic purchases may be delayed on certain realms. Items will appear in your in-game mail once processing completes.&#8221; While the site is typically updated several times a month, only one update was posted in the whole of January, and that was alluding to a developer diary livestream coming up on February 13, although it&#8217;s unclear who will host that, given most of the familiar faces fans have seen in prior streams seem to have left.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Reddit and Discord communities are full of people asking if anyone&#8217;s successfully convinced Steam to give them a refund. While anyone with less than two hours on the clock should get one automatically, those with more time are having mixed results, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/MMORPG\/comments\/1qu659x\/comment\/o38513r\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\"><u>some reporting success<\/u><\/a>, others being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/MMORPG\/comments\/1qu659x\/comment\/o38yz7s\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\"><u>denied<\/u><\/a>, and the rest asked to wait while Steam &#8220;investigates&#8221; the issue. <\/p>\n<p>The most successful requests seem to be via human checks, so<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/AshesofCreation\/comments\/1qtwfd3\/comment\/o35udls\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\"><u> players are suggesting<\/u><\/a> that those looking for a refund should not check the box to &#8220;request a refund,&#8221; but instead contact Steam via the &#8220;I have a question about this product&#8221; option. That way, your request will be routed to a member of customer support, and not an automated service. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unlikely Kickstarter donors will secure any refunds, given the nature of crowdfunded programs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/2026\/02\/03\/screenshot-2026-02-03-at-09-26-31-1770114874090.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/2026\/02\/03\/screenshot-2026-02-03-at-09-26-31-1770114874090.png\" class=\"article-image-full-size\" title=\"undefined\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, without any context or introduction, a standard member, Karen L. Boreyko, addressed the community earlier today (February 3) across several Discord channels, writing: &#8220;Hello everyone \u2014 my name is Karen L. Boreyko, and I want to take a moment to speak directly to this community as we begin a new chapter for Ashes of Creation. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Intrepid Studios is moving forward with a renewed long-term vision for the game, including continued development in China and a transition to a subscription-based model supported by optional daily battle passes, a new in-game gold shop, and expanded skill point progression systems. Our goal is to ensure the project\u2019s sustainability while accelerating development and delivering a live service experience that can grow for years to come. We know change brings questions, and we\u2019re committed to open communication as we move ahead together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At this time, because her account isn&#8217;t tagged as an official team member, it&#8217;s impossible to determine who Boreyko is or how she is involved in the game&#8217;s development, if at all. A Leanne Boreyko is attached to a multi-level marketing wellness company called Vemma, and, coincidentially enough, a different wellness company called 310 Nutrition and <a href=\"https:\/\/310nutrition.com\/pages\/about-us\">run by a man called Tim Sharif<\/a> who has just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s?me=AXG4R53RTUQJ3&amp;marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER\">dropped a load of Ashes of Creation merch onto Amazon.com<\/a>. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve a feeling February 13&#8217;s livestream is going to be very well attended indeed. <\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"divider\"><\/section>\n<p><em>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&#8217;s biggest gaming sites and publications. She&#8217;s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/vixx.bsky.social\"><em>BlueSky<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steam has quietly withdrawn under fire MMO Ashes of Creation from sale after its director and leadership team quit just weeks after launch. Ashes of Creation was funded by a hugely successful $3.2 million Kickstarter campaign back in 2017. It finally released in December as a $50 Early Access game on Steam, but by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Steam Quietly Withdraws Under Fire MMO Ashes of Creation From Sale As Fans Wonder Who&#039;s Left to Maintain the Servers - Next Level News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stay on top of the gaming world with Next Level News. 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