Midnight Society
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded 📆 | December 15, 2021; 3 months ago |
| Founders 👔 |
|
| Headquarters 🏙️ | San Mateo, California, United States |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Robert Bowling (studio head) Sumit Gupta (chief operating officer) Quinn DelHoyo (creative director) |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | https://midnightsociety.com |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Midnight Society is an American independent video game development studio formed in 2021 by streamer DrDisrespect, Robert Bowling (formerly Community Manager and Creative Strategist for Infinity Ward), Quinn DelHoyo (a developer who has previously worked on franchises including Gears of War and Halo), and Sumit Gupta, acting as CEO. The studio is based in San Mateo, California. The studio is currently developing a title, which is codenamed "Project Moon".
History
Two weeks prior, Bowling had been teasing the formation of the studio on his LinkedIn profile. He put out a post stating that he was looking for candidates to fill various roles for an upcoming studio named "VSM".[1] Violence, Speed, Momentum is The Doc's trademark catchphrase, and fans quickly pointed this out on social media. Beahm announced the formation of the studio on December 15, 2021,[2][3][4] along with Bowling and DelHoyo acting as co-founders. Beahm was a community manager for Sledgehammer Games back in March 16, 2011,[5] he was later promoted to a level designer and helped create many of the multiplayer maps for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Beahm joined Twitch while he was working at Sledgehammer. He quit Sledgehammer in 2015 to focus on a full-time streaming career.[6] The day before the announcement, Beahm made a Tweet saying "Biggest announcement of my hot shot video game career... Tomorrow".[7] Prior to the studio's foundation, Beahm had previously detailed that he was "setting up his own game development studio to make games with "mega influencers" in an attempt to catapult them to the forefront of the public eye". After the announcement, #MidnightSociety was trending on Twitter, with fans excited to see what the studio will bring. The announcement post had over 1.2 million views, 1.5 thousand retweets, and 15.6 thousand likes;[8] They've reached 100 thousand followers on Twitter, as well as 30 thousand members for their Discord server. They've also received over 1600 applications to join the development team.
On February 1st, Darren Bacon, who worked on Halo Infinite until its official launch, joined the studio as its new art director.[9][10] Greg Cox, a 3D environment artist who also worked on Halo Infinite, including Halo 5: Guardians and Halo 4, later joined the studio on March 12th.[11]
Midnight Protocol ARG, First game, and NFT controversy
The studio has been marketing the game through an alternate reality game on their Discord server, where members can interact with a bot and go through "sectors". When they enter a sector, they are given one to three choices that picking one, (or two, which varies) branches them into a different path. Those different paths contain items that members need to move on and easily get through another sector, they can find items such as weapons, which are also critical to get through a sector, a "VisorCortex" (which is some sort of identification system that will be used in both the ARG and game), and equipment, which varies from ammo, med-kits, and melee weapons.[12]
Beahm teased the game multiple times on his livestreams, showing the environment and the streams themselves glitching out and revealing more clues on how to beat the ARG. On March 15, the Midnight Protocol reveals itself to him.[13] Beahm questions why it's in the arena, to which it responds that it needed energy from the arena's power grid to initiate the "access pass protocol". And he does so by granting many files such as the "Founder Access Pass", Project Moon's "testing grounds", giving access to "council voting rights", "Variant Rallying Points", and "Variant Gear Drops". It then generates Beahm's Variant form, to which he responds that he deserves more recognition than just a single cortex. The Protocol then renders 9998 more variants, and finishes with saying that there is no turning back.
On the same day, MS announced the Founders Pass, which is an NFT-based access pass that allows players to get early access to the game. It also gives them access to "Industry Guilds", a community-based environment that can give players more of their say, and giving them game-changing tasks such in-game weapons, mercenaries, and cosmetics. As well as voting rights in dev round tables, invitations to in-person community events, exclusive merch with special designs, and a VisorCortex design suitable for their Variant.[14][15][16][17][18] Shortly after, the announcement sparked backlash from its community, with some worrying that the quality of the game will be poor, as well as fear of the game turning into a blockchain game, due to how NFT's are currently harming the video game industry.[19][20][21][22][23] Beahm responded to the backlash on the beginning of the same stream stating that it wouldn't be a pay-to-win feature at all. "Listen, in regards to NFT's: you don't have to have NFT's to play the game," Beahm said. "It doesn't change your experience of the game once it releases and it will continue to be free-to-play. You can't buy your way to win." He went on to assure fans that the pass isn't a 'quick money scheme', but is a way for players to "own the first piece of the history" of the studio. "For those who want to get more involved, there are ways to do so involving NFT's. That's all we're saying," he continued. "This is no quick cash grab, that's not what we're interested in."[24] While Beahm was going over all the benefits the pass has that users will receive, he revealed that the new game was codenamed "Project Moon".[25] He also revealed that it will also be free-to-play and be available on Microsoft Windows, the Xbox Series X and S, and PlayStation 5.[26]
Games
| Title | Platform(s) | Engine | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battle royale game (Codenamed Project Moon) | Windows, Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5 | Unreal Engine 5 | N/A |
References
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect's Midnight Society - Game development studio with Robert Bowling & Quinn DelHoyo announced". WePC | Let's build your dream gaming PC. 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
- ↑ "Dr. Disrespect is starting a new studio with ex-Halo and Call of Duty devs". For The Win. 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ "Dr DisRespect Launches His Own Video Game Studio, 'Midnight Society'". Tubefilter. 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect's Midnight Society - Game development studio with Robert Bowling & Quinn DelHoyo announced". WePC | Let's build your dream gaming PC. 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ↑ "Sledgehammer Games welcomes new Community Manager,... - Activision Community". 2018-05-02. Archived from the original on 2018-05-02. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ↑ Çakır, Gökhan; Cusick, Taylor (2020-03-24). "Everything you need to know about Dr Disrespect". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ↑ "https://twitter.com/drdisrespect/status/1470556156007387143". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-02-07. External link in
|title=(help) - ↑ "https://twitter.com/12am/status/1470815853453189126". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-02-09. External link in
|title=(help) - ↑ "Meet Darren Bacon - Midnight Society Art Director". Midnight Society. Archived from the original on 2022-02-07. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect's Midnight Society Adds Halo Veteran To The Team". www.ggrecon.com. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ↑ "https://twitter.com/12am/status/1502751534597263368". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-03-16. External link in
|title=(help) - ↑ "Dr Disrespect's game studio Midnight Society teases first game". Dexerto. 2022-01-05. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
- ↑ McIntyre, Isaac (2022-03-15). "Dr Disrespect revealing first Midnight Society game this week". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect Excites Fans and Stars Alike With Unique Midnight Society Offering - "Would Love to be Involved"". EssentiallySports. 2022-03-22. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect Launches Midnight Society NFT-Driven Ecosystem". Esports.net. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ Tassi, Paul. "Dr Disrespect's 'Industry Changing' AAA Game Kicks Off With An NFT Giveaway". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
- ↑ "Midnight Society | Variants". midnightsociety.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect Reveals NFT-based Founders Pass for Midnight Society Game". Game Rant. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
- ↑ Tolve, Chris (2022-03-17). "Streamer Dr Disrespect Faces Backlash For NFTs in Midnight Society Game". Rogue Rocket. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ "Asmongold criticizes Dr Disrespect's Midnight Society with NFTs". usa news. 2022-03-18. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ technology; Education, Communication (2022-03-15). "Dr Disrespect draws mixed reactions to Midnight Society Founders NFT drop announcement". InvenGlobal. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ McIntyre, Isaac (2022-03-18). "Dr Disrespect defends adding NFTs to Midnight Society battle royale: 'It's not pay-to-win'". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ Parker, Jason. "Redditor rips Dr DisRespect's alleged NFT-themed game to shreds, brands it an "MLM scheme"". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
- ↑ Pingle, Sarvesh. "Dr Disrespect Reacts to the Backlash Against the Midnight Society » FirstSportz". firstsportz.com. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect responds to Midnight Society NFT backlash, calls game 'Project Moon'". Dexerto. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
- ↑ "Dr Disrespect says Midnight Society's "Project Moon" is free to play". The Loadout. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
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