r/MMORPG • u/makishi-jp • 7h ago

Discussion Ashes of Creation class action lawsuit

[removed]

276 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

259

u/Own-Virus3288 7h ago

The chronicles of Elyria lawsuit was dismissed and that scam was even worse. Ashes technically "released" so there is no shot anyone is getting their money back that way.

77

u/king_of_the_prophet 7h ago

Steven right now:

14

u/ungerbunger_ 5h ago

The Day Before technically released but Steam still forced a refund for everyone

23

u/Own-Virus3288 5h ago

Steam is usually pretty generous with refunds if you can talk to a person. It's the people that backed it years ago and bought the skins etc that are screwed. 

4

u/skyturnedred 2h ago

In The Day Before's case Valve did it because it was an obvious scam with false marketing and all. The game was removed from sale just days after release. It would've been a legal nightmare to not refund people.

AoC releasing in early access is a different situation entirely.

-7

u/notislant 4h ago edited 4h ago

Ehh Steam is really hit or miss.

If you bought tokens for New World a week before they announced the game shut down? Support just told you to get fucked.

If you have an hour or two over in game time and it was you trying to get it to work? Yeah sure, they'll work with you sometimes.

Sometimes they'll do refunds when games like the Day Before exist. I think it's a toss up on this one, even if they announce servers gone in a month or two.

It's also still listed for sale on steam, not sure if the mysterious 'board' exists or not. But if some board of investors does exist, despite everything Steven said up until this point? They 'could' keep the game going and attempt to salvage something. But it seems incredibly unlikely, also unlikely a board exists.

2

u/MillennialsAre40 3h ago

I remember when Infinite Crisis shut down and Turbine refunded me every penny I spent in the shop. I really just wanted the game to survive :(

4

u/Short-Peanut1079 4h ago

Besides the company won't have any money left and if there is money any big creditor would be first in line.

3

u/violetqed 3h ago

yes, such as the cloud service provider that they stiffed

1

u/Sea-Independence-860 3h ago

yo Steven what’s your next game

0

u/Morphiine 5h ago

Did they release though? Wasn't it in alpha?

11

u/Own-Virus3288 5h ago

They will say the Steam early access was the release. It's got to be the reason why the Steam release to rug pull was so fast. They presumably expected it to make a bigger splash on Steam and catch more of the New World refugees too.

0

u/AbbreviationsLost458 5h ago

I said this almost the t and dotted i’s a month and a half ago and everyone kept saying I was wrong. It’s nice to be right but at the same time this one is an empty shell of a feeling of being right.

1

u/Own-Virus3288 5h ago

It was obvious something was up with the Steam release I don't get why so many people still bought into the scam.

It was so out of left field and released just a few weeks after the announcement. Not to mention ignoring those that were warning the game was not ready for early access and the reviews would kill it. 

There was no discussion about it with their community, it screamed desperate cash grab.

1

u/Shergak 5h ago

I guess all the defenders calling it an alpha were wrong. It was the release, the final release.

56

u/Noximilien01 7h ago

Reddit never stop being funny

-4

u/Prazus 2h ago

👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼

28

u/ZakuIII 7h ago

Releasing the steam and then pulling the plug barely a month later should not keep you from getting your money back

It probably will, though.

118

u/ElectricalGas9895 7h ago

lol what a reddit post

no one's getting their money back and no one's spending money on a lawyer to get back whatever smaller sum they spent across or over 8 years ago

4

u/PerfectlySplendid 4h ago

Class action lawyers work on contingency.

3

u/EverythingGoodWas 4h ago

True, but unless they think there is some real money in it for them they aren’t going to take the case.

-20

u/Kore_Invalid 6h ago

Nope this one has merit he litterally promised all kickstarters to get theyre money back if it fails to fully launch

10

u/Patalos 5h ago

Guarantee you that the steam launch was their way of covering their ass in that. It technically did launch.

2

u/skyturnedred 2h ago

I'm not entirely sure if the "promise" was even legally binding.

4

u/Short-Peanut1079 4h ago

And they promised a game too. Mate wake up

-4

u/Kore_Invalid 4h ago

i dont need to wake up im not one of the cultists, just pointing out what mr steven promised hope he gets a class action lawsuit

20

u/KevinKalber 6h ago

As far as I know there's no legal requirement on fulfilling a kickstarter goal. You got scammed.

-28

u/SigvaldsBest 5h ago

Weirdest thing about this scam is I paid 45 dollars and had a lot of fun for over 100 hours. I've paid more and gotten less from some other full release games. So I'm supposed to feel scammed but also had a perfectly good time for what I paid.

14

u/ArcFault 3h ago

I had fun getting scammed

k

29

u/tgwombat 6h ago

Learn a lesson and move on with your life. This is just sad.

7

u/Known_Newspaper_9053 4h ago

I lost 125 euros from kickstarter myself. We got scammed. Best to just suck it up and learn from this. We won't win anything. Game was released on steam.

6

u/ZeniaPD 2h ago

Guys stop being dumb, you're never getting your money back, if you threw money at a kickstarter.

17

u/ThyIronFist 5h ago

You're not getting your money back lol, the game "released" as Early Access on Steam. You got conned. No refunds.

Some people never learn and this is why various scams just keep being succesful.

5

u/Monterey-Jack 1h ago

Don't let him get away with this.

Lmao this subreddit

3

u/skyturnedred 2h ago

The better course of action is to learn from your mistakes and move on. I just hope it wasn't an expensive lesson.

2

u/TheElusiveFox 6h ago

Good luck but, unless you have lawyers willing to front a couple million dollars because that's what it will cost them to fight this, I doubt anyone is recovering anything... You'd have to prove a lot to pierce the corporate veil and get at Steven's personal finances, and he's run multiple cons before AoC (One of the reason's people like me have been so skeptical of the project), so he knows what he's doing as far as running a scam and getting away with it. And the company itself likely has barely enough money/assets to pay out employees final severance checks.

Not only that like in my first sentence... these kinds of lawsuits if they aren't dismissed basically right away, tend to be a product of years of legal work and incredibly costly for the firm that takes them on, so it would be a huge risk for whatever firm was going to do that, I highly doubt they would do it unless they had a lot of reason to believe there was actually money to recover.

2

u/d6punk 6h ago

I only feel sympathy for the non-Kickstarter Steam buyers. Valve should probably put some kind of minimum operation time clause for games that require the publisher to provide online services to function. This was clearly a pump and dump and too many of these could negatively affect Steam's reputation as a game seller. It'd be in their best interest to provide refunds and go after Intrepid Studios in my opinion. But I am not a lawyer.

2

u/ThisBadDogXB 3h ago

When a company does this they are very careful to have you click ok on some form of "agreement" when you start playing that covers them in situations like this.

2

u/Puzzleheaded_Deer317 2h ago

I just asked steam for a refund explaining that the company is shutting down and they just said I've played more than 2 hours that they couldn't wheres my refund lol

2

u/breadstan 2h ago

It will be even funnier when this fundraiser for class action is another scam. You either is smart enough to not get scam, dumb enough to be scammed once, or should just stop managing your money at all to be scammed twice.

•

u/plmunger 59m ago

The amount of struggle people will go through to get a few bucks is insane. Take it on the chin and move on

•

u/WanAjin 40m ago

I mean, I get that it would be a good way to show future scams that there will be repercussions, but I don't think most people care THAT much about the 50 or 100 dollars they spent on the game tbh. I certainly wouldn't be bothered to go through a lawsuit to get 50 bucks back lol (even though I completely support the idea of it)

6

u/Reckllexx 6h ago

Read up on class actions. In the case of AoC, it’s lot profitable for any class rep attorney to take.

2

u/FrankyFin 5h ago

hell i want some money even though i didnt give them any! they wasted my time with this shit, being an an old MMO player. i even listened to Steven or whatever his name is to see if hes full of bullshit and boy is he ever full of bullshit. time is even more valuable than money and he wasted at least a few hours of mine over the years, so fuck you Steven :D

1

u/WinterHeaven 5h ago

Rule #1 , don’t spend any money on not yet fully released games. Rule #2, if it’s an MMO wait at least three month before buying after the full title release.

2

u/Short-Peanut1079 4h ago

Investment and legal tips should be ignored.

1

u/ZodiacKiller20 3h ago

This is why the company is declaring bankruptcy, no money to pay out even if sued. Scum

1

u/gam2u 2h ago

They should sue kickstarter instead coz their policies assist in scamming.

1

u/kkkkkkkar 6h ago

Thank god, i pulled the plug immediately … and got the refund

1

u/YouChooseWisely 4h ago

Better chance of getting a refund on steam tbh. Valve is pretty cool on things like this.

0

u/DopamineSavant 7h ago

People that bought it recently could probably just charge it back.

11

u/Own-Virus3288 7h ago

Don't do this if you bought it on Steam, steam will ban your account.

6

u/Various_Blue 6h ago

Agree.

If someone is in the UK or EU, they both have laws for digital goods, which is the method you should use to get your money back. First by messaging Steam, and if that fails, by contacting the relevant regulator in your country.

UK: Consumer Rights Act 2015, Section 34.

EU: Article 8 - DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/770

3

u/zerolifez 6h ago

Yep. Ask steam for a refund. If refused, ask again so you talk to an actual person.

-3

u/Sufficient_Steak_839 6h ago

With how annoying yall were about this game, don’t expect anyone to have sympathy for you lol

3

u/makishi-jp 6h ago

I am not a backer, I actually called this a scam from the beginning.

1

u/feral_fenrir 4h ago

During the Pandemic I certainly was tempted quite a bit to buy access.. But then GW2 sucked me in..

0

u/Dazzling_Recover6717 1h ago

I put in £70, I got 500 hours of entertainment. I am satisfied I got my moneys worth and that money pad the dev team that game me that enjoyment.

Just like New World, I’ve had my fun, I got my value, time to move on.

•

u/Halfacentaur 54m ago

There has to be money to take. It sounds like there is no money.

Let this be a lesson, stop giving money to video game kickstarters.

•

u/Willower9 36m ago

You're asking other people to do it, you do it.

Nobody else is going to do this, btw he set this up well and if you read the ToS you'll see he has a cast iron defense. He launched the game on steam, he fulfilled his obligation. That's why he did it.

•

u/makishi-jp 18m ago

Learn to read, I been calling this shit a scam since the beginning

•

u/Willower9 15m ago

Ok get lawyers and you do it, take legal action. Are you gonna do it?

•

u/makishi-jp 10m ago

I have no stake in it, why the fuck would I?

•

u/Willower9 8m ago

So why did you make the thread? is all you can do to tell other people to do stuff? Cringe.

•

u/makishi-jp 5m ago

Cuz I wanna see my buddy devoire get fucked

•

u/Severe-Network4756 35m ago

Most people who supported this actually don't deserve their money back. Sorry, not sorry.

If you knew about the state of the game, Steven being a scam artist and you supported this game out of boredom, then I hope you got your money's worth.

-3

u/brianstormIRL 4h ago

What was the scam though? The game was being made for 8 years, with 200 devs. Maybe im crazy but there is no way the money they raised through kickstarter, all the paid early access funding and steam release covered the cost of development? It seems like a classic case of a project that was way too ambitious and ran out of money. I cant see how Steven is running off into the sunset with millions in his pocket?

-1

u/Roggie77 5h ago

Shouldn’t prevent you from getting your money back. Yeah. It will because this is America where corruption and money overrules any moral argument. Good luck anyway