When a former executive goes off to start their own studio, it often becomes a big deal. When that person played a major role in games like StarCraft and World of Warcraft, it becomes even bigger news.
In 2016, former Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo, after leaving Blizzard two years earlier, helped found Bonfire Studios. The company managed to raise $25 million in funding at the start thanks to Riot Games and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
That kickstarted the development of the studio’s first game. And, for the better part of the last eight years, Bonfire Studios has been working on that game known as Arkheron.
Arkheron’s Long Journey
Officially revealed in January 2025, Arkheron is a team-based isometric PvPvE game with two modes: Ascension and Spires. Ascension sees 15 teams of three players fight through other teams and other enemies as they ascend a tower. The goal is to reach the top floor for the final 3v3 showdown to claim victory. Spires, on the other hand, is a mode developed in 2026 that is just a straight-up 3v3 team battle.
But while the game has, for the last year or so, been showing off the progress as well as holding playtests, behind the scenes hasn’t been so glamorous.
Days before the company held layoffs—first reported on by Chris Kerr at Vertical Slice—that reduced the “team by seven roles”, Insider Gaming was tipped off that there’s more happening at Bonfire.
Sources close to the company’s work describe what’s gone on at Bonfire as a “shitshow”. With internal delays and AI being a major reason for changes to the game, the problems go deeper than what some would consider typical development issues for a younger studio. It paints a picture of a company relying heavily on AI tools instead of trusting the people hired to do a job as well as management decisions that have lost the studio money and created a belief from some that the game will be released sooner than it should be, despite the extensive development cycle.
An AI Psychosis
AI is used in almost all areas of game development in the industry. There’s no really getting around it in 2026. However, those who spoke under the condition of anonymity say that the level of reliance AI at Bonfire Studios for Arkheron’s development had become troubling.
There were regular meetings where leads would repeatedly bring up “talking to Claude” or spending hours with the agent to dissect what was being built.
It was expressed that it felt leadership didn’t fully trust the work the developers had done, instead having Claude regularly be used and involved.
“We’d spend weeks or months working on something, only for AI to find its own flaws in it that we’d be forced to address,” a source said. “If you don’t like the job we’re doing and are just going to continue to find flaws in everything being done, then what’s the point?”
Said another, “It’s going to find problems when the prompt is to find them. Even if it’s made up.”
This AI reliance would lead to internal delays, pushing playtests and announcements further out. There’s also been no plan to publicly address the usage of AI to players, despite it being brought up internally to do so.
Even financial decisions, some say, didn’t make sense. One source specifically mentioned paying high amounts for services that weren’t regularly being used for months on end.
Things have gotten to the point with the status of Arkheron that Bonfire leadership were set to fly out to meet with publisher Drimage to, as one source put it, “put the fires out”.
Insider Gaming did attempt, multiple times, to reach out to Bonfire and Pardo to address the claims and concerns ahead of publication.
Pardo passed the request off while the questions regarding a reliance on AI, the exact number of people let go (employees and contractors), and AI being used to make leadership decisions went largely unanswered. All that was said was the decisions made regarding the recent layoffs had nothing to do with AI.
Regarding the layoffs, they were done, the company said, based on the Bonfire’s needs going into the game’s launch and after bringing in a publishing partner. Most of the layoffs, Insider Gaming understands, were on the publishing and administration side of things, with contractors, including developers, also being part of the cuts.
Arkheron still doesn’t have a release date. However, Bonfire says more news is coming on the game “very soon”.
In other news, read about the layoffs at Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 developer Auroch Digital. For even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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