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Midnight Society, the videogame studio that recently dismissed co-founder and popular livestreamer Guy ‘Dr Disrespect’ Beahm, has announced that it will be shutting down after spending three years developing its NFT-infused extraction shooter Deadrop.
January’s already been a brutal month for layoffs and studio closures, and Midnight Society’s demise is the latest. Since late 2021, the studio has been working on Deadrop, an FPS game described as a PvPvE “vertical extraction shooter.” Midnight Society attracted a lot of developers that have years of experience working on massive multiplayer games like Call of Duty and Halo. It also prided itself on making playable builds for its early backers, known as Variants, accessible as early as possible, and looked to them for feedback on Deadrop’s development.
However, the game and the studio has had its fair share of controversy. To begin with, there was scepticism over Deadrop due to its blockchain elements. Variants that had financially backed the project were awarded with bespoke, minted NFTs that would double up as their in-game personas. While Midnight Society claimed that the full game would be free-to-play for all when it launched and wouldn’t require the purchase of any NFTs, the early blockchain push certainly created some doubt.
More recently, its high-profile co-founder Dr Disrespect was removed from the company after he confirmed that he was banned from streaming platform Twitch for allegedly inappropriately messaging minors. Dr Disrespect’s massive following helped attract an initial wave of interest in Deadrop, but many feared for the project and the studio’s future after his dismissal.
In September last year, the studio went through a round of significant layoffs, suggesting that it was running out of funds. Now, the entire studio is shutting down and Deadrop is being canceled.
We are actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members,” Midnight Society says in a statement on X. “If you know anyone who’s hiring please forward this message to them or DM us for direct intros. We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and [we are] deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal.”
As mentioned, January has already seen swathes of job losses and studio closures. The developer behind free-to-play co-op RPG Dauntless is currently laying off the majority of its workforce, Rocksteady suffered cutbacks following Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League’s underperformance, and Splash Damage has put roles at risk of redundancy following the cancellation of a promising Transformers game.