Pirate Software
| Pirate Software | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| File:PirateSoftware 2024 (cropped).jpg Hall in 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Jason Thor Hall July 17, 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Origin | Washington (state), United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | American | |||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Website | gopiratesoftware | |||||||||||||||||||
| Twitch information | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | piratesoftware | |||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Followers | 1.2 million | |||||||||||||||||||
| Associated acts | Ludwig Ahgren | |||||||||||||||||||
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Follower and view counts updated as of June 30th 2025.
Search Pirate Software on Amazon.
Jason Thor Hall (born July 17, 1987[1]), known online as Pirate Software,[2][3] is an American Twitch streamer, YouTuber and video game developer.[4][5] A former Blizzard Entertainment employee, he is known for developing indie games, most notably Heartbound,[6][7] and maintaining a ferret rescue.[8][better source needed] He gained popularity through YouTube Shorts.[8][better source needed]
Career
Hall worked as a security specialist for Blizzard.[4] He left the company in February 2016[citation needed] to work at Amazon Games as an automation engineer.[7]
Hall started his own independent video game company, Pirate Software, where he currently works as chief executive officer.[9] In June 23, 2016, he published his first game, Champions of Breakfast.[7][10]
In early 2017, Hall started his Twitch channel, "PirateSoftware", focusing on streams developing Heartbound and Q&A about game development.[8][better source needed] Hall left Amazon Games in September 2016 to work at the Eagle Research Group as a cyber security specialist until leaving in November 2017 to work on his indie projects.[citation needed]
In late 2023, Hall gained popularity on YouTube Shorts, going from 13,000 subscribers to 1.1 million subscribers in a span of two months.[8][better source needed] At The Streamer Awards 2023 and 2024, Hall won the categories "Best Software and Game Development Streamer" and "League of Their Own".[11][12]
In June 2024, Hall along with Ludwig Ahgren launched their publishing label, Offbrand Games.[13][14][15] In July 2025, he parted ways with the company, citing review bombing of their games in response to Hall's statements regarding the Stop Killing Games movement, a claim disputed by critics.[16]
In addition to software development, Hall owns and operates a ferret rescue in Washington, which provided care for over 50 ferrets in 2024. The operation hosts a live feed of the ferrets on their Twitch channel, "FerretSoftware", to fund the venture.[8]
Heartbound
Heartbound is an early access indie role-playing video game developed and published by Hall. The game centers around a boy who deals with depression, anxiety, and fear as he embarks on a journey in search for his dog, Baron.[7][17]
In March 2016, Hall announced the development of Heartbound. In December 2016, the game was listed on Steam Greenlight. In February 2017, Pirate Software launched a Kickstarter for Heartbound, reaching $19,272 of its $5,000 goal in a month. In December 2018, an early access build of the game was released on Steam.[7][10] Critics initially compared the release favorably to other titles in the genre, such as Undertale.[7]
In January 2025, Steam marked the game as "abandoned" after 13 months of no updates to the game's stable branch.[18] On February 1, the game received a small update.[19]
Controversies
Hardcore World of Warcraft incident
In January 2025, Hall participated in a World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore dungeon run with fellow Twitch streamers in the "OnlyFangs" guild. During a chaotic pull, Hall fled the fight, resulting in the permanent death of two other high-level characters.[20] While fleeing, he justified his actions by stating that he was out of mana while also taking issue with how another party member communicated. Critics argued that Hall, as a mage, had the abilities to help save his teammates but prioritized his own survival.[21] Hall was kicked from the guild by its leader, Sodapoppin, following these events. Hall claimed that his removal was in response to his threats to report other streamers to Twitch, and he claimed that they were inciting their viewers to attack him. [22]
Opposition to Stop Killing Games movement
In August 2024, Hall released two videos to his YouTube channel detailing his opposition to the Stop Killing Games movement and specifically Stop Destroying Videogames, its petition registered with the European Citizens' Initiative. Hall criticizes its supposed vague language and unrealistic goals, the resulting burden for indie developers, and the potential harm to the video games industry.[23][24][25]
In June 2025, a month before the deadline of the European Citizens' Initiative petition with only 400,000+ out of the mandated 1 million valid signatures, Ross Scott, the founder of Stop Killing Games, published a video anticipating the end of the campaign. Directly addressing Hall's stance on the movement, Scott accuses him of spreading misinformation, arguing that Hall's critiques were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the movement's goals.[24] Scott also stated that Hall's stance killed momentum for the movement.[23] Hall faced severe backlash after Scott's response, losing over 120,000 subscribers within a month.[26]
In June 2025, Hall left Offbrand Games after supposed review bombing of their games due to the backlash. However, many critics claimed that Offbrand Games' titles on Steam did not receive a significant increase in negative reviews in the days following Scott's video.[16] Hall doubled down on his thoughts on the initiative, claiming that abuse was not enough for him to retract his statements.[16]
On July 4, 2025, Hall stated that he has received multiple death threats and has been swatted due to the controversy.[20][27]
Personal life
Jason Hall is the son of Joeyray Hall, who also worked for Blizzard as a cinematics artist[8][28] and whose likeness was used to design the griefer from the South Park episode Make Love, Not Warcraft.[29][30]
Hall adopted two ferrets that were previously used in animal testing, spurring him to the creation of the ferret rescue.[8]
Ludography
Video games and expansions
| Year | Title | Publisher | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| TBR | Kill The Moon | Pirate Software | Game director, programmer, artist |
| 2025 | Aethermancer | Offbrand Games | Director of strategy |
| Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime | |||
| 2024 | Rivals of Aether II | ||
| 2018 | Heartbound (early access) | Pirate Software | Game director, programmer, writer, artist |
| 2016 | Champions of Breakfast | Game director, programmer, artist | |
| 2015 | Heroes of the Storm | Blizzard Entertainment | QA Hacks, assistant lead, associate test engineer |
| 2014 | Diablo III: Reaper of Souls | ||
| Hearthstone | Associate test engineer | ||
| 2013 | StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm | QA Hacks, assistant lead, associate test engineer | |
| 2012 | Diablo III | General QA, QA Automation, associate test engineer | |
| World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria | QA Hacks, assistant lead, associate test engineer | ||
| 2010 | World of Warcraft: Cataclysm | QA Hacks, assistant lead | |
| StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty | General QA, QA Automation, QA Hacks, assistant lead | ||
| 2004 | World of Warcraft | General QA, QA Automation |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | The Streamer Awards | Best Software and Game Development Streamer | Won | [11] |
| 2024 | League of Their Own | Won | [12][31] | |
| Streamer of the Year | Nominated |
References
- ↑ Schuhmann (2025-01-20). "Former Blizzard Employee Calls His Kick from the Twitch Guild Dumb, Explains What's Next for WoW HC". Mein-MMO. Retrieved 2025-07-22.
- ↑ Weatherbed, Jess (2024-04-02). "Twitch's Hype Train record smashed again by Pirate Software". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2025-04-27. Retrieved 2025-07-19. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Allsop, Ken (2024-11-02). "The director of a long-awaited new MMORPG is fighting players in game as a PvP 'raid boss'". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Koselke, Anna (2024-05-29). "Hades 2 developers left all of the roguelike's code "exposed" says iconic indie dev, making it "the easiest to mod game ever"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
Jason Thor Hall, former Blizzard security specialist
- ↑ Allsop, Ken (2024-07-12). "Hit survival game Once Human will refund duplicate cosmetics after meeting with ex Blizzard dev". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ Ostler, Anne-Marie (2024-01-12). "Former MMO dev reveals the random mundane object that stopped World of Warcraft's first bots in their tracks". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
While Hall has parted ways with Blizzard, he's still very much involved in making games. His latest project is Heartbound
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Jagneaux, David (2017-01-27). "Heartbound First Hands-On Preview: Could This Be the Next Undertale?". IGN. Archived from the original on 2025-07-16. Retrieved 2025-07-19. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Asarch, Steven (2024-07-09). "How streamer Pirate Software gained nearly two million subs in six months". Mashable. Retrieved 2025-07-22.
- ↑ Mejia, Ozzie (2024-06-07). "YouTube streamers Ludwig and Thor open publishing label, starts with Rivals 2". Shacknews. Retrieved 2025-07-22.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Paek, Jessica (2019-01-10). "Thor, Pirate Software: Leaving AAA to go Indie". Game Developer. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Michael, Cale; Taifalos, Nicholas (18 February 2024). "Streamer Awards 2024: All results and winners for every category". Dot Esports. Gamurs. Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved 18 February 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 12.0 12.1 "The 2024 Streamer Awards: All Nominations". Esports Illustrated On SI. 2024-11-12. Archived from the original on January 1, 2025. Retrieved 2024-11-12. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ McEvoy, Sophie (2024-06-10). "Content studio Offbrand launches games publishing label". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ Mejia, Ozzie (2024-06-07). "YouTube streamers Ludwig and Thor open publishing label, starts with Rivals 2". Shacknews. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ Michael, Cale (2025-01-14). "Ludwig's Offbrand Games Goes From Competitive to Cozy With New Animal Adventure". Esports Illustrated On SI. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Malik, Daniyal (2025-07-03). "Pirate Software Leaves Off Brand Games as Stop Killing Games Reaches Goal". Esports Illustrated On SI. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
- ↑ Yokoyama, Keiichi (2020-07-29). "Steamで高評価のドット絵RPG『Heartbound』日本語に対応。『MOTHER』シリーズの影響を受ける、少年と犬の絆描くRPG". AUTOMATON (in 日本語). Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- ↑ Evangelho, Jason. "Valve Warns Millions Of Steam Users About Abandoned Games". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2025-04-05. Retrieved 2025-07-23. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Benedetto, Antonio G. Di (2025-02-05). "Steam now warns you if an 'early access' PC game might be abandoned". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2025-03-27. Retrieved 2025-07-21. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 20.0 20.1 Sánchez, Miguel Ángel (2025-07-15). "Uno de los grandes detractores de Stop Killing Games denuncia que ha recibido miles de amenazas de muerte, tras perder más de 100.000 seguidores". Hobby Consolas (in español). Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- ↑ Linhares, Nádia (2025-01-13). "World of Warcraft: Who is Pirate Software?". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ Schuhmann (2025-01-20). "Former Blizzard Employee Calls His Kick from the Twitch Guild Dumb, Explains What's Next for WoW HC". Mein-MMO. Retrieved 2025-07-22.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Blazewicz, Jacob (2025-06-24). "Your games could disappear overnight. The campaign to prevent this is failing". Gamepressure.com. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Racinowska, Olga (2025-06-27). "Inside the Stop Killing Games debate, Pirate Software apologizes to Ross Scott but Penguinz0 calls out the hypocrisy". Gamepressure.com. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
- ↑ Maria, Josep Sempere (2025-07-18). "Todo lo que debes saber sobre Stop Killing Games". Eurogamer.es (in español). Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- ↑ Ghosh, Shreya (2025-07-14). "YouTuber Pirate Software loosing [sic] subscribers 'rapidly' since Stop Killing Games controversy". primetimer.com. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
- ↑ "Pirate Software loses more than 100,000 YouTube subscribers after Stop Killing Games controversy". The Times of India. 2025-07-12. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2025-07-25.
- ↑ Marks, Tom (2016-12-09). "Inside the early office culture of Blizzard, in their own words". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
- ↑ Schreier, Jason (October 2024). Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. New York City: Grand Central Publishing. pp. 120–121. ISBN 9781538725429. Search this book on
- ↑ Lydia (2023-12-31). "17 years after the legendary WoW episode, we finally know who the MMORPG nerd from South Park is". Mein-MMO. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
- ↑ DeSena, Gabby (December 8, 2024). "Recap: All 2024 Streamer Awards Winners". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. Retrieved December 8, 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
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