Herschel Guy Beahm, better known as the streaming sensation Dr. Disrespect, made headlines earlier this year by opening Midnight Society — a triple-A video game studio. Project Moon, the studio’s first game, is in very early development, but anyone can try it out soon by picking up the Founders Access Pass, which costs $50.
Last week, Midnight Society outlined some details regarding Project Moon via blog post. It’ll be a competitive PvPvE first-person shooter, with notable industry figures such as Call of Duty’s Robert Bowling being part of the development team. What’s most noteworthy about Project Moon thus far is the studio plans to release playable ‘snapshots’ every six weeks for those that buy the Founders Pass. Midnight Society wants pass holders to try the game out and give in-depth feedback after each build comes out.
This decision, in particular, is drawing some criticism online, primarily since Quality Assurance testing is a full-time position at virtually every triple-A studio, with salaries hovering around $67,000, according to Indeed. So asking fans to handle that bit is morally questionable. Forbes reporter Paul Tassi brought up this tidbit on Monday, asking for insight from industry professionals, only for Beahm to snappishly reply.
“Damn we forgot to run our plans by the ‘Gamedev folks,'” Beahm said on Twitter. “Hope they say it’s ok.”
The announcement is also receiving criticism as the Founders Access Pass is also a tradeable NFT. If Ubisoft, Behaviour Interactive, Team17, and many other companies within the games industry have taught us anything over the past year, it’s that people really don’t want blockchain technology in video games.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
