The Last of Us, Assassin’s Creed Animation Support Studio Allegedly Harbored Crunch, Physical and Verbal Abuse

Content Warning: This story contains details of physical and psychological abuse, as well as the death of a child.

New report from People Make Games has uncovered deeply disturbing allegations of workplace abuse at Brandoville Studios, an Indonesian animation support studio that has worked on games such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Age of Empires 4 and The Last of Us: Part I Remake.

Allegations of abuse at the Brandoville Games were first reported by People Make Games back in 2021: part of a larger story about how Western AAA studios effectively transfer work on major games to foreign developers, effectively hushing it up. However, People Make Games were recently called for to return to their reporting on Brandoville after allegations of the ongoing crisis, as well as physical, verbal and mental abuse, went viral on Indonesian social media.

This was reported by TheGamer indictments last September, pointing to CEO Ken Lai’s wife, Cherry Lai, as the mastermind behind much of the studio’s worst problems. Numerous screenshots and videos reviewed by TheGamer, as well as publicly posted on social media, tell a story of Lai’s abusive behavior, which included sending threatening and abusive messages to employees, verbally berating and insulting them, and, in at least one case, repeatedly physically assaulting employee. employee and ordering him to injure himself as “punishment” for poor performance. That employee, Krista Sidney, has publicly shared much of her story, including claiming that Lai once hit her in the head so hard it caused tinnitus, and on other occasions choked her, pushed her down stairs, and forced her to bang her head on wall. So far she hasn’t had a concussion.

People Make Games’ subsequent investigation goes further to verify and detail these claims, including sharing a video that Sydney was allegedly forced to send to Lai, in which she hit herself 100 times. In addition to Sydney, the People Make Games report details other theories, including allegations that Lai pits employees against each other by verbally berating or gossiping about employees in the office, forcing employees to participate in Christian worship daily, and insisting on allegations employee outfits every day before work. One of the former employees in the video claims that Lai manipulated him into giving him a significant portion of his salary.

Another former employee, Siifana Afiati, tells the story of how she was overworked during pregnancy to the point that she was asked to work while she was in hospital. Afiati’s baby was born prematurely and she was asked to return to work just a month after giving birth, despite her maternity leave lasting three months and her son still in intensive care. Her son died four months later. Three days after his death, Lai sent a message to the company’s human resources department, strategizing how to avoid supporting Afiati and deny her benefits while she was on leave.

Ken Lai did not comment to People Make Games when asked, but Cherry Lai provided People Make Games with a statement: “For me, my part of the story is not important as long as my team is okay and safe now,” but it was a ghost. release without much comment.

Brandoville Studios closed last year. While Ken and Cherry Lai have been trying to form a new company with some of Brandoville’s former employees, LaiLai Studios, it is unclear if the company is currently operating or is working on anything. As of September, Jakarta police were actively searching for Cherry Lai as part of the investigation into the Brandoville case.. In an email to People Make Games, Lai suggested that she may have fled to Hong Kong, but this has not yet been confirmed.

IGN has reached out to Naughty Dog, Xbox and Ubisoft for comment on their partnership with Brandoville in light of this story and will provide an update if a response is received.

Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. You can find her post on BlueSky @duckvalentin.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentin@ign.com.