Summary
Midnight Society, the studio co-founded byYouTubestreamer Dr Disrespect, announced that it made the difficult decision to shut down. The developer was working on a first-person extraction shooter calledDeadrop, which faced backlash for its use of NFTs. Although it also dealt with controversies involving Dr. Disrespect, Midnight Society had previously reassured fans that it was moving on without theYouTubestreamer.
Last year, aformer Twitch staff member claimed that Dr Disrespect was bannedbecause he was caught “sexting a minor” using the platform’s Whisper function. The streamer didn’t outright deny the accusation and did admit to sending inappropriate jokes to a minor on Twitch Whisper. This controversy led to Dr Disrespect losing several brand partnerships, getting demonetized on YouTube, and being removed from Midnight Society’s board.
Despite Dr Disrespect’s removal, Midnight Society promised that it was still working onDeadrop, and many fans expected the full version to come out sometime this year.Dr Disrespect previously claimed thatDeadropmight launch in 2024, but it never came out. Unfortunately, Midnight Society announced on social media that it’s shutting its doors and cancelingDeadropafter three years. In a statement, it expressed its gratitude to the developers who worked onDeadropand the community that supported the effort. It is also actively seeking other game studios that would offer employment opportunities to its 55 developers.
Midnight Society’s Closure Has an Interesting Coincidence
In the replies, many gamers hoped that Midnight Society would issue a refund to the people who paid to supportDeadrop. A good number also asked the developer to release the dev build and let the community finish the game instead. Meanwhile, some people pointed out that Midnight Society’s closure happened on the same day Dr Disrespect reportedly got remonetized on YouTube.Dr Disrespect had been working on reversing his YouTube demonetizationand was refused a number of times, but he seems to have finally succeeded this time.
There’s no proof that Midnight Society closed down because of Dr Disrespect’s remonetization, but people couldn’t help but notice that the studio’s announcement came less than an hour afterJake Lucky’s report on Twitter. Dr Disrespect also confirmed his remonetization in a tweet shortly after. Nonetheless, it’s still unfortunate that some developers lost their jobs following Midnight Society’s closure, and many people are hoping that they will continue pursuing game development in different companies.
Meanwhile, Dr Disrespect has been streaming regularly on YouTube again to thousands of viewers, and evenranked as one of the top YouTube streamers last October. He has yet to comment on Midnight Society’s closure andDeadrop’s cancelation, but some people online are expecting that he might not say anything good.
