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Twitch streamer Pirate Software claims that he was recently swatted and has received «thousands» of death threats. Pirate Software is a Twitch streamer and game developer whose indie RPG Heartbound has been available in early access since 2018. Recent years have seen Pirate Software focus on streaming alongside game development and other ventures.
Earlier this year, Pirate Software was a part of the hardcore World of Warcraft Classic guild OnlyFangs. His tenure with the group ended in disaster after multiple guild members died during a Dire Maul North run, therefore losing their characters forever. Pirate Software’s decision to run away from his teammates and his comments about the situation were hotly criticized. Shortly after, he was kicked out of the OnlyFangs guild. Now Pirate Software has once again found himself the target of significant online criticism, this time thanks to comments made about the Stop Killing Games initiative.
The Stop Killing Games initiative aims to preserve access to online-only games after they are shut down. The hope is that video game companies will have to have some kind of end-of-life plan in place for their live-service and other online-only games that leaves the content in some form of «playable state,» whether that’s through fan-hosted servers, offline modes, some kind of single-player conversion, or whatever else. The initiative has seen a great deal of support from consumers, but has also faced some criticism, perhaps most notably from Pirate Software. «My main issue with this initiative is that it is broad in [its] approach to change the industry and the exact language of the initiative, not the FAQ, requests that all games stay in a ‘Functional Playable State.’ This is not feasible for all games at a technical level and could potentially restrict developers from making online-only games like MMOs, MOBAs, and User Generated Content games in the future. That list is not exhaustive and it doesn’t matter if you do or don’t like those kinds of games. Effectively this has the potential to restrict future developers from making kick-ass experiences because it locks a weight on their designs. Even though this is an initiative that can change in the future this goal is core to the mission and deeply disruptive so it needs to be called out,» Pirate Software explained on Twitter.
Pirate Software's Stance on Stop Killing Games Has Led to Death Threats and Swatting
As reported by Dexerto, Pirate Software said in a recent Twitch stream that he was «swatted» on Tuesday (July 1) and that he and his moderation team have been sent «tens of thousands of death threats.» Pirate Software added, «I’m going to be honest with you. I hope that your initiative gets everything that you asked for, but nothing you wanted. And I’ll leave it there.»
The Stop Killing Games petition has exploded in popularity this month, likely getting some renewed attention thanks to the Pirate Software drama. It has drummed up 1,175,179 signatures at the time of this writing, and it will be interesting to see what happens with it moving forward.
