Pirate Software Leaves Offbrand Games Due to Stop Killing Games Controversy
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- Pirate Software has stepped down from his director of strategy position in Offbrand Games.
- He claims to have left due to the games it published being review-bombed.
- Pirate Software was a developer at Blizzard until he left in 2016.
Streamer and YouTuber Pirate Software has announced that he has left Offbrand Games due to people review-bombing the games they have published because of his opinions regarding the Stop Killing Games movement. He added that the attacks aren’t just on Steam, but across different social media platforms.
Pirate Software, also known as Thor, explained that indie games are fragile things, and attacks like these hit them hard. As such, he decided to step down from his position as director of strategy for Offbrand Games.
His opinion regarding the Stop Killing Games initiative is that it is “broad in its approach to change the industry.” He adds that the initiative requesting “all games stay in a ‘Functionally Playable State’” is not feasible at a technical level and might even restrict developers from making online-only games in the future.
Pirate Software has experience as a video game developer. He used to work for Blizzard until 2016, when he left the industry. The streamer adds that he hates the current state of the industry and purely prefers indie now.
The Stop Killing Games movement is a consumer movement that aims to “challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers.” One recent case of the such is The Crew’s shutdown in 2024. While the game is mostly single-player, it requires an internet connection. Its shutdown was controversial as Ubisoft claimed it only sold licenses to play the game and not the ownership of the game itself.
