Ashes of Creation

Ashes of Creation was Intrepid Studios' open-world MMORPG, Kickstarter-funded in 2017 and in development for close to a decade. Its central promise was a world that changed according to what players did, instead of a fixed map with content nailed to the same spots forever.

The map was carved into nodes: zones that leveled up from the activity of the players around them. A node that grew turned into a village, then a town, then a city, unlocking quests, services and content of its own along the way. It could also fall and leave the space open for something else.

Everything else hung off that: each settlement had its own governance, neighboring nodes came into conflict, and open warfare was part of the game rather than a separate mode. It was built for players who want friction with other people and consequences that stick, not for anyone looking to progress quietly on their own.

The announced launch plan was a $14.99 monthly subscription with no box price, plus a cosmetic shop the studio promised would carry no pay-to-win or convenience advantages. None of it ever went live: the only thing ever sold was access to the tests, first as alpha packages on the studio's own store and later as $50 Steam Early Access starting December 11, 2025, with a month of game time included at launch. It isn't on sale anywhere today.

The last public Alpha Two update was 0.18.13, on January 14, 2026. Nine days later came nine layoffs; on January 31 co-founder and creative director Steven Sharif resigned; and on February 2 Intrepid filed WARN notices describing a permanent studio closure (the filing lists 123 employees). The game was pulled from Steam that same day and the servers went dark. Valve refunded buyers who fell outside its usual policy.

There's no roadmap, no buyer for the IP and no return date: buying or playing it isn't an option. What's still alive is the litigation. Vendor SADA Systems is claiming $852,630 in unpaid Google Cloud services, former staff sued over unpaid wages, Sharif accuses the board of a hostile takeover while investor Jason Caramanis accuses him of mishandling funds, and Intrepid filed a cross-complaint in June 2026 alleging, among other things, that staff walked off with data center hardware.