Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm co-founded Midnight Society in 2021 to make the types of online shooters he got famous for playing on Twitch. Now the game studio is moving on without him following new allegations about why the streamer was banned from the Amazon-owned platform back in 2020.
“In order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act,” the studio wrote in a statement. “For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately. While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the fifty-five developers and families we have employed along with our community of players.”
Midnight Society cuts ties with Beahm just a few days after former Twitch employee Cody Conners claimed the platform originally banned the popular PUBG and Call of Duty streamer for allegedly “sexting a minor” and trying to arrange a meetup at TwitchCon using the platform’s “Whispers” messaging system. Beahm responded over the weekend, writing, “I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.”
According to the new statement from Midnight Society, the studio’s leadership became aware of the allegations for the first time on June 21 shortly after Conners’ tweets went viral on Twitter, and began its own investigation into the situation. “We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved,” the company wrote.
Midnight Society is currently in the middle of making Deadrop, a community-based PVP extraction shooter for which players can purchase Tower Keys to get access to pre-alpha vertical slices of the game while its in development. Previously entangled with NFTs back during 2022 when Dr Disrespect and others began promoting it, the project has since moved toward a more traditional crowd-funding model in which players essentially pay to test the game and be a part of its production. Deadrop is currently aiming to bring an early access version to consoles and the Epic Games Store.
The studio did not elaborate on how its investigation was conducted or what it discovered that convinced it to cut ties with Beahm, whose “Dr Disrespect” brand and massive following appeared to be a big part of what was helping to fuel Deadrop’s development. Midnight Studio’s statement on Twitter is full of comments below it from apparent Dr Disrespect fans threatening to abandon the game over the decision.
Beahm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
