The developers of Deadrop, the first-person shooter Dr Disrespect helped to promote, have insisted it remains on-track for release later in 2024 despite the streamer’s high-profile exit from the studio.
Guy Beahm, better known as Dr Disrespect, was banned from Twitch in 2020 without explanation. In June 2024, following a number of reports, Beahm admitted he exchanged messages in 2017 with a minor via Twitch’s now-defunct Whispers feature that “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.” Subsequent reports alleged the minor had informed Beahm they were underage, and Beahm continued to send “sexually graphic” messages to them regardless.
Twitch and Beahm have so far failed to respond to IGN’s requests for comment.
Just days after the allegations emerged, Deadrop developer Midnight Society announced that Beahm would no longer be associated with the company. Now, in a new interview with Bloomberg, Robert Bowling, one of four co-founders of Midnight Society, insisted Deadrop will still launch during the fourth quarter of 2024 as planned.
Deadrop is a new free-to-play first-person “vertical extraction shooter” set in “a dark and violent future where the 80s never ended.” It incorporates what Midnight Society insists are environmentally friendly NFTs and what it calls a “very specific approach” to blockchain technology.
According to Bloomberg, Midnight Society is made up of 55 developers, and has raised $24 million to finance Deadrop. Bowling said Beahm’s “job as an influencer was to bring eyeballs and community to it [Deadrop].” He added: “having some initial marketing in the beginning we wouldn’t have otherwise definitely helped.”
The original plan was that Dr Disrespect would play the game upon its release to his millions of followers and subscribers on YouTube. Clearly, that will not happen. The question now is whether Deadrop will find success in an increasingly competitive live service shooter market, one that has already claimed a number of high-profile victims in recent months.
Midnight Society was just one of a number of companies and brands to distance themselves from Beahm following the allegations. Hi-Rez Studios pulled all Dr Disrespect content from Rogue Company, and partners and sponsors like Turtle Beach, 2K, and the San Francisco 49ers cut ties with the streamer.
Meanwhile, Beahm hasn’t issued a comment since his last stream, in which he played Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, at the end of June.
Image credit: Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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