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

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. Here are some examples. 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. According to the publication, Moon Studios had a high turnover rate but new employees were promised 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. To understand what was happening, they would look at Twitch streams and fan reactions to their games. 

“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 additional information regarding this alleged “oppressive” workplace so we encourage you to head there to read the full report. However, it contains the following: GamesBeatBelow is the complete response of Mahler and Korol to the publication. GamesBeatIt gave them the chance to comment on its report. Here’s what they said: 

“We don’t believe the experiences suggested by your questions are representative of the more than 80 Moon Studios team members who are thriving and doing great work every day — nor do we believe they are representative of the experiences of former members of our team. Our history of making people happy, helping them advance their careers and contributing to financial success is something we are extremely proud of.

Moon Studios was founded on a single premise. We wanted to establish a global studio, which isn’t bound by geographical boundaries. This will allow us to attract top talent all over the globe. Our second goal was to build a strong culture in which our employees thrive and produce the highest quality work. Finally, we wanted to make sure that the entire team shares the rewards and profits of all our work. We feel we succeeded.

What makes our team so powerful is our global and cultural diversity — we have team members working from more than 40 different countries across four continents — and a flat studio structure that allows everyone to speak honestly and directly and to challenge and push each other to do our very best work. We purposely set out to create a different kind of studio — one that encourages creativity, open communication, collaboration, and performance.

The result has been two award-winning games — with more on the horizon — and a team of professionals who enjoy working together, are excelling and breaking new ground in our industry, while also sharing in the financial success of Moon Studios. Although we may sometimes criticize and challenge others, we do so with honesty and praise. All that we have achieved and built is an incredible accomplishment.

Finally, we appreciate the irony that we — an Austrian and an Israeli Jew — started this multicultural enterprise. Each other are brothers. Like brothers, we often joke with and sometimes disagree with one another. 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.

Moon Studios has thrived over the past 12 years. Through these 12 years we’ve grown tremendously and have gained so many valuable lessons. Many, many amazing and highly talented individuals have given us the privilege of working with them. We are truly grateful and proud of our team — those who are here today as well as those who spent time at Moon and have since moved to other ventures – and we are happy to have made a positive difference in their lives. Although we’re not perfect, we care deeply about the talent of our employees and work hard to make it better. If we have ever made anyone feel uncomfortable or let anyone down — we regret that and we will always strive to do better.”

— Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol

[Source: GamesBeat]