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Staff allege Ori developers Moon Studios is an “oppressive workplace"Offensive language, poor feedback, crunch
Offensive language, poor feedback, crunch
CW: The report includes mention of anti-semitimism, rape, use of the r-slur.
“It’s an oppressive workplace, for sure. But it’s hard to pinpoint one thing because, in isolation, all of these incidents, if they happen once, you would think they are small things,” one game developertold VentureBeat. “When you’re dealing with that for [multiple] years, you’re going to see the decline of people’s mental health.”
Moon Studios is a fully remote studio with 80 employees. Face to face meetings and video calls were said to be rare, with almost all company communication conducted via text chat.
“Were the founders both belligerent? Yes. In my opinion. Was it limited to those two? Yes. Unprofessional on an hourly basis? Yes. Harassing? Yes,” one game developer told VentureBeat.
The report also contains details of an upcoming Moon Studios game, an action RPG in which Mahler wanted the main character to be raped as motivation for the revenge story that followed. Other developers banded together to convince him this was a bad idea over the course of a month. “If Thomas said he wanted something, it would take like half the team to band together and persuade him to not do it,” said one developer.
Developers also allege that the harsh feedback, off-colour language, and long hours led to burnout, high staff turnover, and mental health issues among employees.
“Finally, we appreciate the irony that we — an Austrian and an Israeli Jew — started this multicultural enterprise,” says the statement. “We view each other as brothers. And, like brothers, we sometimes argue and frequently tease each other. We have made jokes at our own expense about the differences in our backgrounds — and there may have been times that our teasing of each other has come off as insensitive and may have made others feel uncomfortable.
“If we have ever made anyone feel uncomfortable or let anyone down — we regret that and we will always strive to do better,” it ends.
The full report onVentureBeat is many thousands words longand contains many more developer quotes, examples, and tales of mismanagement.
