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PirateSoftware Leaves OffBrand Games as Stop Killing Games Reaches Goal (www.si.com)
submitted 1 week ago by cm0002@lemmy.cafe to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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I'm pretty sure this is the same guy who was ranting about Godot "being woke" last year lol

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[-] SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 22 points 6 days ago

The YouTuber noted that his opinion on the initiative has led players to review-bomb the company's new releases. To avoid further harm to their reputation, he's terminated the partnership indefinitely. "I am no longer working at Offbrand Games,"

The damage is done now. He isn't likable, took a big loss on his part, almost took down his collabs with himself.

Let this be a lesson in being humble about your public appearence. He's essentially being featured in some questionable forums, I believe. This was absolutely not worth it for him.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

I don't understand why he's getting flamed so hard. I get that it's an unpopular take, but the reaction is way overboard. Why is the community like this?

[-] Raxiel@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

It's not just because of his stance on SKG. That's just a catalyst.

He's curated this image of being some kind of industry guru, through carefully edited shorts, appeal to authority fallacies and thorough moderation of dissenting opinion.

Because this is the first time (I'm aware of) he's taken such a strong contrary position to a popular argument, it's caused people to look closer and pull back the curtain.

What they've discovered is that they've been lied to (by the "hacker" who gained access via social engineering), and that's what pisses people off.

The criticism of his character has been around for a long time, but his message was always louder. Until now.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

I haven't followed him at all, in fact, I've only watched a few videos by him over the last week or so due to this controversy, and read a couple articles about it. I found this wiki page about him, which claims his career has been:

  1. worked as a freelance security researcher and developer (I'm guessing basic pen tests, given his likely experience at the time)
  2. started at Blizzard in QA, left after 6 years as a pen tester
  3. created indie studio w/ friends, and so far has completed one game, has one as "early access" (for 7 years!!), and one in progress
  4. streams a lot

I don't know what claims he has made in the past, but working at a major studio for several years in multiple capacities would certainly give him some insight that most outside the industry don't have. He has also likely learned some game dev in his stint as an indie developer, though I don't think that's particularly relevant to the claims he has made about SKG.

Is that history inaccurate?

From what I've read, the main complaints are:

  • take on SKG - people don't think he has the credentials necessary to make the claims he has (for the record, Ross Scott also doesn't have any relevant credentials)
  • something about WoW? Sounds like a misunderstanding that he cleared w/ his team (I watched a clip of the original stream)
  • people claiming, without evidence, that he's lying about his credentials

Here's my opinion:

  • agree w/ take on Godot
  • disagree w/ take on SKG, though I do understand that the petition is a bit vague in some areas, but that's for legal reasons (i.e. you can't force a studio to release their server code)
  • he's a bit abrasive, hence why I haven't been able to actually finish any of his videos; had I found him months earlier, I would've been turned off purely based on his style

I don't think he deserves the flak he's getting, I do think he made some serious mistakes on the SKG opinion, and he should've been better at reading the room and actually had Ross on to discuss the initiative and air his concerns.

[-] Raxiel@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I didn't really follow him, but the YouTube algorithm filled my feed with his shorts and I inevitably formed an opinion based off those. I don't watch twitch.

When I first saw the negative coverage about him with the wow thing, I thought it was just people being petty and the usual trolling

Not to the extent I'd post defensive comments, but I was on his side. I did start to wonder if he was full of it, the coverage following ross' rebuttal of his arguments confirmed it for me.

I'm not trying to convince you if he's a bad guy or not, just explain why a lot of people, including me are annoyed at him and creating a market for content pointing out his lies.

I don't want to go in depth on his background, that wikka is broadly correct although his first job was in QA at blizzard due to nepotism (source: Thor himself on stream) he left and I don't recall whether the security researcher job followed immediately but he did a stint of that where he did pen testing via social engineering (source his LinkedIn) and returned to Blizzard to work in the security department, not nepotism this time (according to him) although he had worked there before and his Dad still did which wouldn't have hurt. Then he worked at Amazon as a tester.

As for his credentials and their relevance to his take on SKG, the big difference is that Ross doesn't claim to be an expert, he's made it clear his opinion is the way the industry treats eol products is anti-consumer, that the law isn't clear on whether that's allowed, and that if you agree, you can join the campaign. Jason on the other hand is relying on his credentials to back up his arguments and why people should listen to him.
The wow thing, as I understand it, mistakes were made by several people including him, not that big of a deal, except he refused to admit any wrongdoing and banned anyone who disagreed which rubbed people up the wrong way. It might have caused less of a stir if he didn't flex on others about how good he is.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Jason on the other hand is relying on his credentials to back up his arguments and why people should listen to him.

Perhaps. But he also has some relevant credentials, since he has worked with a big AAA studio, worked w/ an indie publisher, and has been working on games w/ a team.

It's a bit odd IMO for him to go out of his way to defend live-service games since that rarely describes indies, but I wish he'd clarify his point there in the context of a revised understanding of the petition. It wouldn't sway my opinion, but perhaps it could sway others who are on the fence about the petition.

It might have caused less of a stir if he didn’t flex on others about how good he is.

Sure, but isn't that kind of what streamers do? If you're not wanting to watch someone flex on others, then perhaps watching a popular streamer isn't the best move.

I think the main issue is that he didn't step to self-correct. When you have a controversial take (and I'm sure he was aware his take was controversial), you need to be extra careful you have accurate facts. When he got a bunch of pushback, he should've reached out to Ross to have him on to talk about the petition, which would both provide a chance to elucidate the facts, as well as give viewers more context on the issues he has with it. That didn't happen, and I think that's the main issue here.

That said, I think the response to Jason/Thor was way too aggressive. Yeah, he has a bad take, but I saw some review-bombing on his own games, which doesn't really help things (I didn't even know he made games until I was trying to find out why so many people cared).

Anyway, I'm happy to continue largely ignoring him, because he doesn't produce content that's interesting to me.

[-] Raxiel@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

But that's the point people are making, that his credentials actually aren't relevant, at least not to the extent he's an expert. He worked at Blizzard, but not as a developer, it's been likened to someone who worked in the billing department at a hospital weighing in on medical care.
He does have experience as a dev on Heartbound, but that's not AAA, and he seems to have got bored of that, preferring the ego boost of being a streamer.
He's still entitled to an opinion of course, but it shouldn't carry the weight it had been given.

His support for life services makes sense when you find out the game publisher he (allegedly) founded and the one he recently resigned from, was publishing live service games.

He claims he was review bombed, others have checked the steam stats and it didn't support his claim.

It seems like you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, and TBH that's fair enough, especially if you're just going to ignore him. Like I said, I think a lot of people who are mad at him were following him, and feel like they were taken for chumps.

If you did decide to dig into it though (and I'm not recommending it), there are some content creators bringing receipts, and there is a definite pattern of behaviour.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

He worked at Blizzard, but not as a developer, it’s been likened to someone who worked in the billing department at a hospital weighing in on medical care.

A QA would probably be more involved, since they would be testing the game or something related to the game. How relevant his experience was depends on what he worked on and who he had access to talk to. I learned a lot about electrical engineering while working as a software engineer at a company that built custom antennas because I talked to the EEs a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a similar experience at Blizzard.

preferring the ego boost of being a streamer

And probably the money. With a big enough audience, it pays reasonably well. I doubt his games are selling well enough to live off of.

He claims he was review bombed

He claims the other publisher was review bombed, I'm talking about his studio's games, which do seem to be review bombed (overwhelmingly negative for recent reviews, positive all time).

I think a lot of people who are mad at him were following him

Perhaps. But a lot of people knee-jerk join the bandwagon as well. Look at everyone jumping on the Godot hate train. I refuse to form a negative opinion without being fully informed, because the cult of public opinion can be absolutely reactionary.

So I err on the side of giving people the benefit of the doubt.

And yeah, content creators jumping on the bandwagon isn't my cup of tea, since they have a motivation to exaggerate to get views. I want a pretty unbiased, fair take, not a rage bait take, and that's more likely to be found on a forum like this instead of on YouTube. Hence why I'm asking.

[-] Baguette 8 points 6 days ago

Unpopular take is a bit of an understatement. He called the entire movement shit and trashtalked it instead of just disagreeing. He also, after all the responses, doubled down and said he hopes "the movement gets want it wants, but not what it needs."

It's also not really a one off situation from PirateSoftware

This just served as a way for others to shed light on how scummy he is as a person in general.

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[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

As far as I've seen, the only thing PirateSoftware did "wrong" was point out some unintentional consequences that would fall on indie developers given the language used in SKG as written, and get a bit personal in his criticism of Ross Scott, and everyone has lost their minds on the dude. Idgaf about personal beef between creators and I agree with his concerns for indie developers even though I still support the idea of SKG (there is a happy medium place to be found here). Even if I didn't, he's said nothing so inflammatory to the cause as to earn all this stupid drama. Chill the fuck out.

[-] Goldholz 25 points 6 days ago

No. Everything he said about this initiative was wrong

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Care to elaborate on what he said and how it was wrong? Or....

Edit: down voting someone asking for clarification does not make your side look better or more right, you know, guys. The guy essentially said "nuh uh" like that was a strong argument, and I said "because?". Seriously, chill out.

[-] Goldholz 23 points 6 days ago

So he said it would force MPs to be able to be played single player. Which, is wrong.

In the stream/video he is on a page that litterly says "this is what its not about" and he says "so this is all what its about"

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Ok, I'll look more into that to better understand if that is the case. But even if he was wrong about everything, why is such a misunderstanding worth the drama and backlash? Everybody is truly up in arms over what seems like pretty mild criticism even if that criticism is all mistaken. Especially if it is all mistaken, really. People are acting like he said "fuck gamers/consumers and their rights", which is clearly not what happened. Disagreement isn't the same as disparagment or conflict. Reasonable minds can differ.

[-] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 19 points 6 days ago

"Not only do I not support this, I will go out of my way to tell people not to"

"This initiative can eat my ass, the whole thing. It can eat my entire ass"

That's not mild criticism in my world. About something that he did not even understand in the first place as many things he complained about was things the initiative literally said they were NOT trying to do.

But hey. Sometimes people can be wrong. We make mistakes. But when someone refuses to acknowledge they were mistaken and instead double down.

That's when people get upset.

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[-] vxx@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

People have been out for him since the WoW drama where he as a self proclaimed genius and WoW god did everything wrong and left his mates out to die.

They dug into him and found that he's a master at bullshitting and pretending to find solutions to puzzles, that he obviously did google.

He might be a furry and also changes his voice to sound more masculine. He claimed to have received tens of thousands of death threats after the wow drama, which is highly unlikely.

He never admit fault but always doubles down.

All of that combined brought out the biggest of hate boners in people.

It's definitely easy and justified to dislike him, but he's not Hitler or something. He's just unlikable for bullshitting all day, but doesn’t deserve real hate.

People don't do themselves a favour by having such a low bar for literally hating someone. They will just get controlled by their hate.

[-] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

People pointed out in his comments section but he did not apologize or mention for 10 months. When the video came out saying he was wrong he doubled down and said he is actually right. And then kept doubling down.

He also lied and said community is attacking him to see if that will hurt the movement. Community in fact did not attack him.

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[-] Quatlicopatlix@feddit.org 6 points 6 days ago

He pretended like this would force studios to publish sourcecode and that they have to give up on drm. I am not shure if he or someone else said this but someone also pretendet like new laws would somehow retroactivly apply to all games and now sstudios would have to give up server code that propably has thrid party software in it that they dont have the right license to just release it.( this is also a point i read alot from comments everywwhere and its stupid.) First, anny new law will take a ton of time untill it iss written then passed and then goes into effect. If this law passes studios will know way in advanced that upcoming releases in the eu would be under this new law and therefore can take this into account when builsing their infrastructure for online play/drm like in case of the crew.

Also anyone who is active in piracy forums where devs work on stuffk ows that they dont need aourcecode to get it running. People will chow through assembly if they want to make a game work, some decompiled lego island over the course of a year to preserve it.

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Thank you for the good faith response.

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[-] TheOneAndOnlyDeath@feddit.nl 12 points 6 days ago

So "eat my entire ass" is not inflammatory now? Good to know.

Even of he did not say that, if he really wanted to give positive criticism he wouldn't advocate against it entirely. Your happy medium is correct, he was 100% against it from the beginning.

Not coming from anger or anything like that, just pointing out that you implied he was in the happy medium when he isn't.

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

So "eat my entire ass" is not inflammatory now?

Do you have the clip/video source of this quote? I didn't see him say that in his critique videos I watched. I need context to judge it.

[-] pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

He did say that in his first video, but came out with a more reflective video which you probably saw.

Regardless, the fact he's dealing with such fall out over an opinion in an industry he's active in and getting ousted is dumb. Everyone is losing their minds over this but like everything people will move on to something else in a month.

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[-] chrischryse@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

So I’m confused what exactly did he dislike about the movement? Seems like a solid one to me.

[-] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

its difficult to know why he did what he did because he apparently misinterpreted what the point of the petition is and then spiraled right down a toilet from there

[-] pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Basically he is not happy with the wording of the initiative. He had a 10 minute follow up video after he had a knee jerk reaction and went to into personal attacks against the guy that thought of the movement.

I'm going to get to roasted for this but watching his video I see what he's worried about. I agree that this industry has scummy practices but this bill is going to be a monkeys paw scenario.

I would love for this bill to go through in a perfect world but as of now companies are doing layoffs and closing and adding in more red tap and financial burden will mean more projects will be cancelled or won't be released in certain areas because it's not going to be financially viable.

I'm open to have my mind changed as I don't have any insight on what happens behind the scenes in these operations but I think people looked at a PowerPoint that said "gamers are getting fucked over" (which is true when live service games close) and signed something that COULD make studios rally around their legal team and financial departments to make things worse.

Pirate also didn't do himself favors by being not media trained and careful with his words but now he's dealing with SWATing, death threats, harassment, and losing his job over an opinion that's honestly from a perspective of someone that has worked in that industry for a long while vs a community know for being miserable and ready with pitchforks over stupid shit.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 11 points 6 days ago

Please stop felatioing the game companies. The issue everyone had on his hot take is that by the very same logic no regulation on any company is warranted, and that is insane. Its just more of a bad industry wanting to have their cake and eat it as well.

[-] pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

This is why I hate this community right here. I answered the person's question and gave him what pirates view point was while calling out these gaming corporations and explained what they will probably do if a bill like this passes and your take away is I am "felationing" (not a word) game companies.

Just droves of window lickers like you infest this space and any nuanced conversations get lost.

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

"I see what he's worried about" they mumble around a mouthful of profit oriented testicles.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Also without stating any actual concerns while fighting their gag reflexes.

Edit: Also the children yearn for the mines, they say while telling people not to be concerned about non corporate interests. After all the companies interests are basicly our own.....

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[-] Devconsole@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago

Let's brigade people more for speaking and thinking differently. There should only be one correct opinion and anyone who disagrees should be shunned.

[-] kattenluik@feddit.nl 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

your takeaway from individual people being unhappy after everything that has come to light about an individual popular person is missing the actual situation/thing that is happening right in front of you? quite a bit more went on than "differing opinion" and even then people are luckily allowed to be upset and it is even easy to understand when it is an influential person, welcome to the internet.

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 days ago

Why do you people care?

[-] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 17 points 6 days ago

Why do you care about people caring?

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this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
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