Overdue payments have not been transferred for almost a year, and delays in transfers are the norm. This is what his former employees say about the CEO of Intermarum

Polską wersję tekstu znajdziesz tutaj. / Polish version of this article can be found there.

Intermarum is a studio founded in 2011 by Szymon Janus, a CEO (Michał Szymerski serves as vice-president). Today, it is also a publicly listed company, even though the suspension of trading in the company's shares was announced at the beginning of June. Its main activity is game production; the studio previously provided external development and programming assistance for larger companies. Its catalogue includes Space Company Simulator, Workshop Simulator and a whole list of porn games. On 29 September 2023, a one third of the employees of the Opole-based Intermarum were informed that they were being made redundant.

The decision was said to be „a consequence of the difficult market situation, which affected the company's financing capacity and the ability to maintain the team”. The developers had to leave their desks without being prepared for such a scenario beforehand. Furthermore, at the time of their departure, Intermarum was in arrears with their subordinates‘ salaries, with the amount of debt ranging, depending on the individual, from the equivalent of one to three months’ salaries. One year on, these people have still not seen their money and, by their own admission, no longer believe in recovery. We also spoke to ex-employees working at the company prior to this wave of redundancies, to whom the company also owes considerable sums.

A year has passed, and my interlocutors still haven't seen their money and, by their own admission, no longer believe in financial recovery. We also spoke with former employees working at the company before the mentioned wave of layoffs, to whom Intermarum also owes certain sums.

Besides, the developers claim „not paying people is a well-known taboo subject in gamedev" that "hardly anyone chooses to talk about”. „Enough, it's time to speak up”, declared one of the interviewees. Their main goal is to warn those looking for a job not to go to the company in question, as it continues to recruit people without informing them of the prevailing crisis. Devs say there have been delays in payment transfers for as long as they can remember (we're talking not about months, but years). They warn: „There are a lot of desperate people, the problems in the market happen all the time — it's a pity that unsuspecting people can get involved in another mess…”.

Intermarum operates mainly in the erotic games market (photo: Pocket Waifu Rekindled).

Financial problems have apparently plagued Intermarum for a long time. As interviewees report, there were regular periods — lasting up to three months — when money was not being transferred. Employees continued to work for the company for a simple reason: the arrears were usually cleared, and the company was able to function in a normal way, not just episodically meeting its obligations to developers. However, breaches were occurring increasingly frequently. It was reported to me that “a friendly/family atmosphere was being developed at Intermarum most of the time, deliberately exploited later on when problems arose as a result of bad or risky management decisions,” and while for a long time the company managed to make up the shortfall, running out of financial capacity always got an excuse of the market crisis.

The aforementioned September 2023 happened to be the breaking point. “It was a shock, we got up to work in the morning and didn't know what to do next. (...) The management knew about the crisis and did not prepare us for it in any way, many of us had trouble finding work for a long time.” This struck people all the more because Janus had earlier assured them that “it's gonna be fine” and that the studio was trying to “acquire new projects” to continue working. Two days after the verbal assurances, the subordinates were fired.

Quotations of Intermarum SA over the last year (source: Bankier.pl).

They were employed on a contract for hire or contract for work, but were given a month's notice, which the company did not have to respect due to the these civil law provisions. Although the ex-employees use the phrase “termination notice,” the truth is they didn't receive such in the form of a document - the whole thing was announced through a message on the company's Slack (one of the popular messaging services). After numerous requests, those who were laid off received reference letters, though these mostly contained the same content, changes involving mainly the personal information or dates (I was told some names were mixed up). In addition, sharing information about staff changes was seen by management as a detriment to the company.

In order to maintain communication between the indebted management and the affected, a special channel was set up on the company's Slack with the ex-employees as guests. However, they had to admonish the management to set up proper accounts for everyone. As I learned, information was published there and contact was maintained, but the replies regarding the reimbursement of outstanding money always ended in the same way — with the assurance that there was no new news, but that efforts were underway to help raise the funds.

When my interlocutors were still working at Intermarum, the situation with the payments liked to repeat itself and followed a fairly clear pattern: „Every week it was said that the following week they would try to get us the money. Then the week turned into more weeks, and weeks turned into months”. Some people who insisted on being paid were able to get it (this was not the rule, though). The management „believed that the ones who do not ask for finances doesn't have to get them any sooner”.

Sometimes, even when payments appeared regularly, they did not come in full. Sometimes employees received an incomplete amount, with 100% of the next amount transferred the next month, but the missing part of the previous one was still not paid. This is how it was supposed to happen for many people, as they say: “(...) we were like fish on a fishing rod”. They add: “You never knew if the payment would come on time and if it would come at all, and if so, if it would come in full. Not even to mention the recovery of outstanding funds.”

None of my interviewees were informed during their interview about the fact there might be delays or gaps in payments along the way. What's more, „those hired after the mass layoff are not informed about the company's situation”, because yes — there was a re-recruitment after 29 September 2023. Newcomers were supposed to hear prospects of a bright future, and when the negative reviews were pointed out, for example the posted one on GoWork, Szymon Janus reported „they are written by a mentally ill person who wants to harm the company.”

On the GoWork portal we can read reviews about Intermarum, which highlight the company's late payment to employees.

The idyllic fate of Intermarum's functioning, by the way, has been presented by the CEO on several occasions, as the interviewees recall. They add that, in particular, going public was advertised to the subordinates as an attractive plan for them as well, and they were even promised an employee package of shares - in the end, no one saw it with their own eyes, and despite reminders and initial documentation, the subject was brushed aside for weeks and months to come. The devs do not feel they have been treated fairly. Some outright feel that the bosses „preyed on the naivety and inexperience of those employed” (they were largely newcomers to the industry).”

We've contacted Janus, who outlined Intermarum S.A's position on the matter. The chairman admitted that “some of the arrears of the employees (...) laid off last year are still not settled.” When asked since when there have been problems with the timeliness of payments made, he replied that “it's difficult to address such a general question, the company has existed for 14 years and has employed 200 workers during this period.” Janus cites cooperation with “unreliable” publishers as the main reason for the company's crisis, “which was not going well from the beginning.” “Problems with settling production payments have befallen us from each of the existing publishers,” Janus says, adding that these problems have also ricocheted to the employee team, albeit, he believes, ”to a lesser extent.” He recalled the production of Workshop Simulator: “We were forced to finance the project from our own resources and look for a new publisher. This one failed to meet all its obligations, including timely transfers to Intermarum SA.”

Intermarum was also working on a project under the code name Orange 2. At the time, discussions were held with a Russian publisher about broader production funding, and „a finished contract was not signed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine”. Szymon Janus says he cannot disclose more details about the project „as there is an ongoing process between Intermarum S.A. and one of the publishers”. Ex-employees state, however: „We didn't sign contracts with the publishers, we signed contracts with Intermarum — the company is throwing its hands, while we are the ones having the real problem”.

The problems with the production of Workshop Simulator were said to be due to non-payment by the publisher.

Janus claims that after the suspension of the Orange 2 project, he let his subordinates know about the company's problems. „We informed the employees about the difficult situation and that we could not guarantee employment in the future, which we repeated many times. The team had a free hand at that time to look for work, to prepare a portfolio”. We recall that our informants claim that the management made no secret of the fact that the situation was problematic and that there was no money from publishers, „but they did not warn about the possibility of losing jobs - even better, they assured they would do everything to keep people in place”.

We also asked Janus how many people Intermarum has hired since the September 2023 layoffs, whether they have been informed of the company's situation and possible salary arrears, and why they hire people who cannot be paid regularly, at a time when the laid-off developers have not been paid their back wages.

“We fully understand that people we are in arrears with may feel disgusted to see the — rare, but still — recruitment we are doing. However, this is not an action directed against them. (...) When any talks about starting a new project come to fruition, new people may need to be hired. Negotiated new projects are the fastest way to pay off the backlog, so it remains in the best interests of the ex-employees to do so expeditiously,” Janus explains.

Janus also believes that our question is “posed with an incorrect thesis,” as “the current team is paid regularly and on time, and any backlog are a direct consequence of the backlog created in 2023.” However, as the current development team informs us, they too have not been paid back some of last year's salaries, and money can come in late. 

Intermarum SA still hasn't published its 2023 annual report. At the end of July, they announced their plans to do so on 30 September 2024. As a result of a failure to prepare the document, on June 3, 2024 the Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange passed a resolution to suspend trading in the company's shares. The company, however, is not idle, as on July 4, 2024 it announced the creation of a subsidiary company, JNT Games, with the same board composition as Intermarum SA. When asked about JNT Games' plans, Janus said he could not report on them before the publication of any stock market reports.

JNT Games is subbranding of Intermarum.

Also speaking about the near future, he hopes to “settle the arrears to employees. This invariably remains our priority.” Reportedly, the release of a “premium game” - the erotic Pocket Waifu Rekindled, scheduled for later this quarter - may allow this to happen. “The company announced on August 19 that it was undertaking a restructuring program, which we had been preparing for a few months. This is a good decision for the employees, as it is a natural path out of the company's problems and aims to sort out and systematise the regulation of receivables against them. The supervisor of the restructuring arrangement is in the process of contacting the employees and has already made contact with most of them, which will allow the start of the debt settlement planning process,” Janus explains. In these words, however, he makes no mention of Intermarum's exemployees. These still haven't received the money owed to them and do not know when they may receive it. They hope that “this article will help warn others.”

During the company's restructuring, Szymon Janus remained active in other fields. On August 27, 2024, he announced on his social media that he was joining Kanał Zero (Channel Zero, a popular journalism YouTube channel created and run by a football reporter Krzysztof Stanowski). The position was to be offered to him by Stanowski himself. We will provide any updates when it comes to the situation of former and current Intermarum employees, as well as the company itself.