Steven Sharif, the former head of Ashes of Creation studio Intrepid, is being sued by his own attorneys for non-payment, MassivelyOP reports, in a filing that runs to 198 heavily redacted pages.
Sharif and his husband John Moore had retained Withers Bergman LLP since February to represent them in at least four cases connected to the dispute over Intrepid, and had paid the firm more than $800,000 in fees. The firm alleges they then refused to pay a remaining balance of about a million dollars. Sharif switched law firms in June, though the reason the payments stopped is not stated in the complaint; the attorneys pre-emptively claim he did not object to the invoices as they were issued.
Neither Sharif nor Moore has responded to the complaint.
The Discord update that does not mention it
Hours after a video breakdown of the suit circulated, Sharif posted a long update in the Ashes of Creation Discord that says nothing about Withers Bergman. He had appeared there a few times in June and July to confirm he was still going, and the previous week said he had received thousands of messages from supporters and felt resolute under the pressure.
What the update does contain is confirmation that his own suit against the Intrepid board continues, and a notice to the rest of the industry about the game's assets.
I speak now to the investors and publishers in the industry who may be engaged in discussions with the board defendants, or TFE Games Holdings LLC or Dawnfire LLC: you are on notice, by order of The Honorable Judge Linda Lopez, in The United States District Court for the Southern District of California, all assets requested by Intrepid except the domain and social media sites identified by Sharif and communication devices, shall be turned over to the IP custodian until further order of this Court.
The order set a 72-hour deadline for that turnover, running from the hearing the day before the post. Sharif went further, telling anyone with firsthand knowledge of a private server, an unauthorised copy, a transfer or third-party access involving those assets to preserve their own records and not to transmit source code, credentials or confidential materials.
He closed by addressing backers and former staff directly, acknowledging that a court fight over custodianship of an unfinished MMO is not what anyone signed up for.
