DrDisrespect studio Midnight Society announces closure four months after "significant" layoffsAs Google lifts streamer's monetisation ban.Image credit: Midnight Society News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Jan. 31, 2025 Midnight Society, the studio co-founded by controversial streamer Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm, is shutting its doors, four months after making "significant" layoffs. The news comes as Google announces it's lifting Beahm's YouTube monetisation ban, which was put in place following his admission of "inappropriate" behaviour with a "minor" last year.Midnight Society was founded by Beahm and former Call of Duty community manager Robert Bowling in 2021, and the studio announced its first title - free-to-play vertical extraction shooter Deaddrop - the following year. Development on Deadrop has continued since then, but 2024 proved challenging for the studio amid Beahm's admission he exchanged "messages with an individual minor back in 2017" that "leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate".Bowling and Midnight Society were quick to distance themselves from Beahm when the allegations around his behaviour first surfaced, but the studio was seemingly unable to weather the resulting storm. It announced "significant" layoffs in September, blaming "multiple unexpected challenges in recent months." And now Midnight Society is shutting down."Today, we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of 55 developers contributing to our new IP Deadrop," the studio wrote in a statement shared on social media, adding it is "actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members.""We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members," the developer concluded, "and [are] deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal."Midnight Society's closure coincides with the news Google has lifted its suspension preventing Beahm from monetising his YouTube channel. The channel was initially demonetised following Beahm's admission of "inappropriate" behaviour with a "minor" last June, and Google chose to uphold that suspension following an appeal in October - despite Beahm's attempts to backtrack on his earlier statement in September, when he began referring to the messages as "jokes". Now, however, Google has announced a reversal of its decision."DrDisrepsect was previously suspended from the YouTube Partner Program for violations of our Creator Responsibility policies," it wrote in a statement shared by Kotaku's Ethan Gach . "Creators who are suspended from this program can reapply for access, and after careful review of the channel's recent activity, we've reinstated it. If there are further violations, we'll take appropriate action." Google did not specify what had changed since last year's appeal."What a fucking weird world, huh?", Beahm said in a stream following YouTube's reversal (via Kotaku). "On the day that Midnight Society closes, we get monetisation. What a fucking trip."