Just months after laying off a “significant” number of employees in the face of “unexpected challenges,” Midnight Society, the studio co-founded in 2021 by Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm, former Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling, and Halo 5 multiplayer designer Quinn Delhoyo, has announced that it’s closing completely.
“Today we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of over 55 developers contributing to our new IP Deadrop,” the studio said in a message posted to X. “We are actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members. 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 [are] deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal.”
That goal was the release of Deadrop, an extraction shooter that got its start through the sale of NFTs. The money sunk into those now-homeless digital doodads has led numerous “founders” to ask in response to the message if they’ll receive refunds, since the game isn’t happening. Midnight Society hasn’t officially commented on the matter, but the safe bet (and general consensus) is, “no.”
Midnight Society came out with a bang, backed by Beahm’s fame as a streamer and Bowling’s cred as a Call of Duty veteran, but progress on Deadrop seemed to slow in early 2023 when the studio moved away from frequent “snapshot” build releases to “less frequent but much larger” updates. Things got ugly a year later when Beahm was fired by Midnight Society over allegations that his lifetime ban from Twitch was issued over an exchange of inappropriate DMs with a minor.
PC Gamer’s Morgan Park said at the time that “it’s hard to imagine a happy ending for Midnight Society,” words that now seem prescient.
In a twist of horrible irony, Midnight Society’s closure comes on the same day that Beahm’s YouTube channel was remonetized. It was demonetized after his admission of the inappropriate message exchange with a minor; his first request to remonetize the channel, in October 2024, was refused; YouTube’s appeal process allowed him to reapply for monetization again after 60 days.
I’ve reached out to Midnight Society to ask about the possibility of refunds for founders, and will update if I receive a reply.
