The designer of the super product PS5 game accused the developer of pressuring him to quit his job, stealing 1 billion salary

Recently, the Video Games Chronicle (VGC) page reported, the game’s lead designer Brandon Popovich Kena: Bridge of Spirits Just posted a forum to denounce the old company as Ember Lab forced him to quit his job “malicious” while the game was still in development. Not only that, this studio also stole a salary that should have belonged to him.​

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Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an adventure game on PlayStation and PC, announced in the introductory press conference PS5 in July. The game’s developer, Ember Lab, was founded in 2009 by brothers Josh and Mike Grier as an animation studio and has not released any major games before. Brandon Popovich – an experienced game programmer and designer who worked at major studios like Insomniac and Skydance was invited by Ember Lab to help the studio embark on console game development in 2016.

However, Popovich only stayed with this studio for 7 months, and in 2017 he quit. According to this designer, before parting with Ember Lab, he had written 95% of the code for the PS5 version of Kena: Bridge of Spirits. At the same time, he also revealed that Ember Lab has not yet paid him wages for some of the work he has done, this studio once guaranteed him a long-term position but then maliciously cut his salary. him, forcing him to leave the company. VGC page also said that a former contractor of Ember Lab revealed that this studio once asked Popovich to work overtime without pay.​

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VGC contacted Ember Lab and received a completely different answer, this studio said that the Kena project has been in development for 5 years, while Popovich only worked here for 7 short months, the studio paid salary. give you higher than market price. The studio also pledged to put Popovich’s name on the final product of the game.

However, in the emails that Popovich provided, it can be seen that he is very influential in the Kena project, but when the studio has financial problems, he only receives a meager salary, and at the same time works many other things to maintain maintain income. CCO Mike Grier told Popovich that if he wants to continue this project, he will only receive a very small salary, less than the original agreement of $ 50,000 (1.1 billion). Popovich refused and left the company.​

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He said that when he saw the game introduced in the PS5 press conference, he felt extremely sad. The game’s trailer is almost identical to GDC 3 years ago, some elements he developed also appear in the trailer, only they are polished to be more beautiful. At the moment, it is not clear who is right and who is wrong in this matter.