Dr. Disrespect launches his own gaming studio, Midnight Society

A month after YouTube Gaming partner Dr. Disrespect publicly claimed that Electronic Arts shadowbanned him, the Doc has announced Midnight Society, his own rival gaming studio. The self-proclaimed “6’8 visionary” is branching out into the business world, co-founding the AAA gaming studio along with Robert Bowling and Quinn DelHoyo.

The squad — Before joining Midnight Society, Co-Founder Robert Bowling was a creative strategist and community manager at Infinity Ward, the developer of Call of Duty. CoD is one of the Doc’s favorite games, so it makes sense that he’s teaming up with a former employee.

Quinn DelHoyo comes from the Halo team. He worked at 343 Industries for 8 years as a game designer, working on weapons, sandbox features, arenas and multiplayer modes. Now, he’ll be Midnight Society’s creative director and third co-founder.

The mission — According to Midnight Society’s website, the studio is developing a PVP multiplayer game. Dr. Disrespect wants his studio to move beyond the “one-and-done publishing model” other leading game developers maintain.

Influencing industry — The new studio is placing a big emphasis on incorporating community and influencer feedback, which appears to be Doc’s underlying reason for creating his own studio. While an adaptable, feedback-driven ethos is nice in theory, it may be hard to execute when gamers have contrasting opinions.

Winds of change — Nevertheless, Midnight Society’s optimism and startup energy is a part of its appeal, especially in the light of publisher monoliths that continue to be mired in controversy (cough cough, Activision). Hopefully, Doc can bring his ambitious vision to life. He’ll need a big team to do it, though, and it looks like Midnight Society is currently hiring for a bunch of roles, from Gameplay Engineer to Community Manager.

Who knows… maybe one day when Dr. Disrespect’s game releases, he can finally tell us why he was banned on Twitch.