Midnight Society, the game studio behind shooter game Deadrop, has confirmed that “significant” layoffs took place after staff started to post about the move on social media.
The layoffs come just three months after the company announced that it was “terminating” its relationship with Dr. Disrespect, a popular video game streamer and one of the studio’s co-founders, amid allegations that he inappropriately chatted with a minor. Dr. Disrespect previously confirmed the allegations, but has since backtracked on his admission.
“Unfortunately, and as most of you know, we have faced multiple unexpected challenges in recent months,” studio co-founder Robert Bowling, who uses the handle Fourzerotwo, posted in an NFT-gated Discord channel. “We’ve made the tough decision to streamline our operations, which includes a significant workforce reduction.”
PC Gamer shared a similar statement from a studio representative, echoing confirmation of layoffs. It’s still unclear how many employees were affected by the move. Midnight Society did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s comment for request.
On Friday, roughly 50% of the development team at Midnight Society were laid off. This was unexpected and crushing to see for those of us in the community. Obviously, the studio has been through a lot due to the recent drama surrounding Doc.
Today, Rob Bowling gave us an update… pic.twitter.com/eF2boJyKwn
— JOK5RR (@JOK5RR) September 10, 2024
On Friday, Dr. Disrespect returned to streaming with a YouTube video titled “The Truth.” In this stream, he disclosed that the studio was cutting its workforce.
“Unfortunately, we have to lay off people from Midnight Society,” the streamer said, blaming the former Twitch employee, Cody Conners, that initially resurfaced the years-old allegations ahead of the streamer’s own admission from June.
Midnight Society did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment about why Dr. Disrespect referred to the company as “we” despite his claimed separation. However, Bowling reportedly told Esports.gg that Dr. Disrespect indeed was “terminated from his position.”
Afterwards, a purported ex-employee took to social media to explain that they had been let go.
“Due to workforce reduction, 50% of the staff at Midnight Society was laid off today, myself included,” ex-concept artist for Midnight Society, Eric Hallquist, said on Instagram.
This comes three months after the studio stated that it was “terminating” its relationship with Dr. Disrespect, aka Guy Beahm, following the allegations that he inappropriately messaged a minor.
In an interview with Decrypt’s GG in August, Deadrop co-creator Quinn DelHoyo announced the studio’s plan to start early access for Deadrop in November and eventually ship the fully featured game in fall of 2025.
According to the recent Discord statement from Bowling, the studio still plans to launch the game in 2025 despite the layoffs. That said, he also explained that “revised plans and milestones” will be released soon.
In Beahm’s Friday stream, he denied the allegations despite previously admitting to having conversations with a minor that “leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.” Beahm claims that he said this to bait journalists into reporting it.
Many fans have since come out in support of Beahm following his lifestreams, believing that he was banned from Twitch and kicked from Midnight Society as the result of baseless claims. But Bowling reaffirmed in the Discord chat that this is not the case.
“At no point did I base any decision on Cody’s words or Twitch’s words. I asked Guy and got Guy’s answer and acted,” Bowling explained. “I just want to focus on making the game.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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Source: https://decrypt.co/248964/deadrop-game-studio-layoffs-booting-dr-disrespect
