ranzware
An in-depth investigation into the working conditions at Brandoville Studios (an Indonesian studio which has provided animation support to games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and The Last Of Us: Part I Remake) has been conducted by People Make Games, and alleges a shocking culture of abuse.
Before we proceed, it should be noted that the contents of the report involve extensive physical and psychological abuse and the death of a child, as well as recordings of coerced self-harm. I will also be describing some of these elements below.
Brandoville Studios, which closed on August 17, 2024, was headed up by Cherry Lai and Ken Lai—the studio’s commissioner and CEO, respectively. People Make Games’ report cites several employees, both named and anonymous, and shares both video footage and text threads sent and verified by the channel’s reporter, Chris Bratt, that paint a disturbing picture of sustained misuse of power by Cherry Lai.
The bulk of evidence provided comes from Christa Sydney, who alleges that she suffered years of abuse during her time at the company. Sydney states that, after joining Brandoville in 2019, she was reprimanded for raising “her voice to the company’s CEO, Ken Lai, during a disagreement over how some business cards had been printed.”
The report claims that, despite being expected to be fired, Cherry Lai intervened, saying that “God had talked to her”, after which Sydney was taken under her wing and given “two weeks to prove herself.”
What ensues in the video is a textbook description of abuse—coroborrated by Sydney and her coworkers, some of which choose to remain anonymous in their statements. This was, in part, enabled by the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw Sydney and other coworkers moving into Brandoville Studio’s building to live there permanently. As the report explains, the studio itself had a set of “dorm rooms”, with Ken and Cherry Lai living in a bedroom three floors above.
The allegations include controlling behaviour, physical attacks, harassment, financial control, and coercing Sydney into acts of self-harm. Recordings, shared in the video, see Sydney slapping her own face 100 times, striking her mouth until it bleeds, and being dazed and unable to answer sentences after Cherry Lai requested a separate, self-inflicted punishment: “I had concussion-like symptoms,” Sydney explains, placed next to a video where she is struggling to respond. “My vision became all-white for a couple of seconds.”
Another employee, by the name of Syifana Afianti, told People Make Games that while she was pregnant, Cherry Lai forced her to go into meetings late into the night, subjecting her to extreme stress and sleep deprivation. Afianti would later be bedridden with a haemorrhage and advised to rest, though she states this did not stop the company from attempting to pressure her into coming back to work.
Her son would later be born two months prematurely, and sadly died four months afterwards in the ICU. The report then shows a later text thread between Cherry Lai and Brandoville’s HR manager at the time where, speaking of Afianti’s emergency leave to grieve her son, Cherry Lai is shown to state there was “no way we pay for her currently sad mood or anything” and that they needed “take control back.”
People Make Games put the accusations to Cherry Lai, and she responded: “To me, my part of the story is not important, as long as my team are good and safe now,” and stated she’d be happy to talk if they came to Hong Kong to speak with her. When they stated they would, but that conversations would need to be recorded, she cut off contact. Ken Lai also did not respond.
In a statement to Eurogamer, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows developer Ubisoft claims it was “deeply troubled” by the reports of abuse, adding that it “strongly condemn[s] all forms of abuse, and our thoughts are with the affected employees.”
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Kurt Indovina
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