Moon Studios has made a name for itself over the past few years with its excellent line of Ori games. In fact, the two titles have seduced many players around the world thanks to their dreamlike and enchanting universe. Unfortunately, a recent survey of its employees reveals a much darker reality. That of a toxic studio where moral harassment is the order of the day.
Clumsy humor mixed with ordinary racism
It’s in one particularly dense and detailed article that Dean Takahashi represents an unexpected working atmosphere. Several developers who have passed by Moon Studios or who still work at Moon Studios have harshly criticized the studio’s culture and management practices in particular. Their founders, Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol, are therefore singled out very widely, specifically accused of mistreating the teams and having a particularly “oppressive”.
With around 80 employees in more than 40 countries, Moon Studios works exclusively with remote work. This organization inevitably induces a large number of exchanges through instant messaging tools but also through audio conferences. Two channels of communication that aim to be “open and spontaneous” and which have become the scene of abuse and harassment. Several testimonials underline the special humor of the two studio managers, who are not afraid to share “jokes” that are not to everyone’s taste.
“Tyler is the only person who knows of my diabolical plans to kill Jews by making them develop games to the death.” we can read in Venture Beat’s article before learning that it’s common for allusions to be made to their gender size on shared channels. comments to “The Appearance of Woman” are also done with the tact and intelligence of one “12-Year-Old Who Would Joke About Your Mom”
Of course people come and go, but there is the fact that a large number of people did not stay. I think a lot of people just don’t want to put up with the toxicity, the occasional racism, and more. There are far too many casual Jewish jokes out there. We’re talking about general corporate chat, and the same jokes are being made. It’s not acceptable.
The end justifies the means
But that’s only part of the hell employees go through. In fact, some of them accuse Thomas Mahler of being completely incompetent when it comes to conveying information or his opinion on a work that has been carried out. “His feedback boils down to: This is crap” reveals a testimony. And another to entrust that “Thomas is not able to make anyone aware of what is best to do. That puts them in an impossible situation.”
Founders are particularly talented at bringing a creative vision to life, but much less so at managing their people. This is also the meaning of the words of this former developer:
In your head, [ces directeurs de création] built these phenomenal worlds. And when they’re briefing someone, they don’t realize that the people around them haven’t quite got it, and they’re too scared to say they haven’t got it. […] The person leaves, agonizingly wondering what to do. She feels like she will be shot if she asks. These [leaders] Creative people haven’t learned the art of sitting down and communicating effectively.
And more broadly, Moon Studio’s ability to care for people is presented as nil. Turnover is particularly high there and appears to be a direct result of the studio’s toxicity. Some developers say they are so disgusted with their time on the staff that they have it “I lost my passion for my work because they took it from me”. And as the creators of Ori continue to recruit thanks to the promise of big bonuses and the creation of some of the most popular games in the world, these testimonials aim to reveal a behind-the-scenes look. “I want to prevent other people from falling into this trap.”
In the end, she only cares about the quality of the product, which means it’s probably the company I’ve seen that cares the least about its employees. So when they are very hard on you, they don’t mince words, they don’t react, they aren’t respectful in conversations, they laugh at your words, they don’t care about you and you have to do better, it says in the Services to the greater good of making the game better.
End of relationship with Microsoft
It’s important to also highlight rare, more moderate comments in the Venture Beat article. A developer uses it to underscore the fact that Thomas Mahler is a lovely person in real life, but is completely transformed when he exchanges it online. As if, like some users of forums or social networks, the actions behind a screen were less serious and their scope less significant.
However, the echo of this situation reached the ears of Microsoft. The manufacturer has been a partner for almost a decade and has in fact had several heated arguments with the studio’s founders. Between delivery delays and budget increases, relations always seem to have been difficult. However, some developers believe that the American company was partially aware of the toxic management in Moon. At least partly for this reason, the two companies also ended their relationship amicably.
A scenario supported by the words of Jez Corden. Indeed, the Windows Central journalist confirms Dean Takahashi’s investigation and assures that Microsoft has distanced itself from Moon because of this disastrous corporate culture. He also tweeted that the Moon founders behaved aggressively and inappropriately towards Xbox employees.
I can confirm a lot @deantakreports on Moon Studios. I am told that the Moon founders resorted to personal attacks/bullying against Xbox teams and burned all bridges.
Spoke with @Rand_al_Thor_19 on Xbox Two that I didn’t think MS would work with Moon again, this stuff is why. https://t.co/mm8Ax5298b
— jez (@JezCorden) March 18, 2022
Response from Moon Studios
After investigating Venture Beat, the newspaper offered the studio’s founders a right of reply. The latter took advantage of the publication of the article to respond to the numerous testimonies collected by Dean Takahashi. Here is her answer.
“We do not believe that the experiences suggested by your questions are representative of the 80+ Moon Studios team members who succeed and do great work every day – nor do we believe that they are representative of the experiences of former members of our team. In fact, we are very proud of our history of making people happy, advancing their careers and contributing to their financial success.
We built Moon Studios on a simple principle. First, we wanted to create a distributed studio that isn’t limited by geographic boundaries and allows us to attract top talent from around the world. Second, we wanted to foster a vibrant culture where our team thrives and does the best work in our industry. Finally, from day one, we decided to share the benefits and rewards of our efforts with the entire team. We believe that we have succeeded.
What makes our team so strong is its global and cultural diversity – team members work in over 40 different countries on four continents – and the flat studio structure that allows everyone to express themselves honestly and directly, to challenge and push themselves to be the best job you can. We consciously set out to create a different kind of studio, one that encourages creativity, open communication, collaboration and achievement.
The result is two award-winning games – with more on the way – and a team of professionals who enjoy working together, excelling in our industry and innovating while sharing in Moon Studios’ financial success. If we are sometimes brutally direct in our criticism and challenges, we are also sincere and loud in our praise. We are incredibly proud of everything we have built and achieved together.
Finally, we understand the irony that we – an Austrian Jew and an Israeli Jew – started this multicultural enterprise. We consider ourselves brothers. And like brothers, sometimes we often fight and get angry. We joked at our expense about our differences from our origins — and there were times when our teasing was considered insensitive and made others uncomfortable.
Moon Studios has been thriving for 12 years. We have grown over the years and learned so much. We have had the privilege of working with many, many wonderful and extremely talented people. We are truly grateful and proud of our team – those who are here today, as well as those who have spent time at Moon and have since moved to other companies – and we are pleased to have made a positive change in their lives. We’re not perfect, but we care deeply about our talents and constantly strive to improve. If we’ve ever made anyone uncomfortable or let anyone down, we regret it and will always strive to do better.”
– Thomas Mahler and Gennady Korol
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