With the cost of making games increasing every year, more and more studios are relying on external companies to help them meet deadlines. Unfortunately, this often results in overworking and abuse that goes unnoticed in the gaming industry. Brandoville Studios was a company located in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. It used to work on various AAA games, such as Dark Souls 3, The Last of Us, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Mortal Kombat, and Uncharted. Although they were part of the team that made these fantastic games, the staff at this Indonesian support studio has suffered many horrific abuses.
The case became viral in Indonesia but recently drew people’s attention in other countries after People Make Games posted a video about it. The video features interviews with several employees who worked at the Indonesian support studio. They said that the main culprit of the abuse was CEO Ken Lai’s wife, Cherry Lai. While most staff could return to their own homes, Brandoville Studios offered a dorm where some employees were invited to stay. Although this might sound great, it wasn’t long before Cherry showed her true colors.
She initially started by giving a strict schedule that employees had to follow. Cherry Lai even ordered her staff to attend a mandatory Christian prayer meeting despite her staff having other religions. A former employee named Christa Sidney said she wasn’t allowed to rest during the External Developer Summit 2022 in Canada. “I wasn’t allowed to sleep,” she said, “I had to work with her. She was micromanaging everything.” Sidney said she only got several minutes of sleep during the event.
There was even more abuse in Brandoville Studios. At one point, Sidney was ordered to record herself while she slapped herself 100 times. Cherry Lai also prevented staff from contacting their families. Even when one of their family members passed away, they weren’t allowed to take a day off. One pregnant worker even lost her child after being overworked so much.
When Sidney finally told the public about what happened, the Central Jakarta Police launched an investigation. The Brandoville Studios office was closed in July 2024, but Ken Lai and Cherry Lai opened another company named LaiLai Studios. Due to the ongoing investigation, it’s unclear whether the new studio is still running. In an email to People Make Games, Cherry Lai seemed to imply that she had escaped to Hong Kong.
So far, the only company that’s responded to this horrific news is Ubisoft. After all, Brandoville Studios was one of the external developers who worked on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The Ubisoft spokesperson told Eurogamer they were deeply disturbed by the reports and strongly condemned all forms of abuse.
