Dr Disrespect’s Former Studio Shuts Down, Deadropped For Good
Midnight Society, the game studio once co-founded by Guy ‘Dr Disrespect’ Beahm, has officially shut its doors, taking its ambitious FPS, Deadrop, down with it. This closure comes just six months after the studio severed ties with the controversial streamer.
In a heartfelt, if not predictable, social media post, the studio expressed gratitude to its community while calling on other companies to scoop up its now-jobless developers. “We are deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal,” the farewell message read, in what can only be described as an epitaph for a dream that never quite got off the ground.
— Midnight Society (@12am) January 30, 2025
Midnight Society had been grinding away for three years on Deadrop, a free-to-play first-person “vertical extraction shooter” set in a dystopian future where the 80s never ended—an intriguing premise, though one that now joins the graveyard of unfinished gaming ideas. The project attempted to fuse NFT elements into its gameplay, a move that had ‘risky business’ written all over it from the start. Despite releasing multiple playable demos—dubbed ‘snapshots’—for its community, the game will never see the light of day.
The writing was on the wall last summer when the studio cut ties with Dr Disrespect, following allegations that he sent explicit messages to a minor. Not long after, Midnight Society faced “multiple unexpected challenges” (a corporate euphemism for ‘things went south fast’) and announced major layoffs. Now, the inevitable has happened—Midnight Society is no more.
It’s yet another casualty in an industry struggling with mass layoffs. According to GDC’s latest survey, 11% of game developers reported being laid off in the past year—up from 7% the year before. The trend is grim, and Midnight Society is just the latest name on the growing list of shuttered studios.
For now, all that’s left of Deadrop is the lingering question: Was it ever really going to work? Or was it doomed from the start?
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