Founders Of Ori Developer Moon Studios Respond To Accusations Of Sexism, Racism, And Bullying In New Report

gameinformer.com:

Moon Studios' founders, Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol, have been accused of sexism, racism, and bullying by developers within the studio in a new report from GamesBeat. 

Employees at Moon Studios, which is the team behind Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps, told GamesBeat that they view the studio’s culture as “oppressive,” citing that the studio’s leaders used buzzwords about being an open and honest workplace as a cover for abuse that happens there. Examples included in the GamesBeat report include the use of offensive words by the founders, anti-Semitic jokes, and public discussion and jokes about the size of their genitals. 

GamesBeat reports that a lot of these “jokes” and inappropriate discussions happened in public chats that were open to others at the company, suggesting that Mahler and Korol didn’t find anything wrong with what they were saying. The publication also reports that turnover at Moon Studios was high, but that new employees were recruited with promises of large bonuses and other benefits. 

One developer said they stuck around despite the oppression they felt at Moon Studios because, despite it all, they felt pride in their own work on the studio’s games. They would watch fan reactions and Twitch streams of their games to reconcile with what they were dealing with. 

“We really created something special, and I know the only way I was able to reconcile it was I was able to watch people on Twitch and watch other people get moved by it, and that was actually part of my healing process,” they told GamesBeat. “Because maybe my suffering was worth it because other people felt something. In the end, I mean, so many of us were burned out.” 

GamesBeat’s report is quite extensive and features a ton of