An official Valve gaming handheld, clearly visible for eight seconds of an 11-minute cartoon? Truly, this was the moment PC gaming became mainstream. 

OK, no, this was not the dawning moment of cultural acceptance of our decades-old hobby, which you could reasonably argue is the first and oldest gaming platform. By my count, PC gaming has enjoyed mainstream visibility on par with its console counterparts arguably as far back as 2017 or 2018, when the generation that grew up on Minecraft reached ages that made it a perfect audience for games deeply steeped in the spirit of PC gaming. (Also, technically, Smiling Friends referenced PC gaming a whole year earlier last season when it showed us a depressed Satan spending time playing Rust and hanging out on Discord. Relatable, Satan.)

If mainstream-ness is measured in television appearances, readers of this very website will know that PC gaming has been blessed for some time by the acknowledgement that only minor-to-medium celebrities can provide. A wing of our website was temporarily dedicated to documenting Henry Cavill's PC gaming habit, but earlier than that, Terry Crews spoke to us in 2017 about discovering PC building, and Chloë Grace Moretz built her own $4000 desktop in 2022. The greatest chess player in the world appeared in a Hearthstone ad. Jack Black operated a gaming YouTube channel for a few years. 

I mean, the South Park WoW episode aired in 2006, woof. You'd think we PC gamers would be feeling seen at this point.

If I sound insecure, it's because the notion of PC gaming becoming genuinely mainstream felt like the furthest thing from possible for a very long time. If you were a PC gamer from 1993 to 2010, you know what it was like to feel like you were the strange creature among your friend group who played games on a keyboard and didn't have strong opinions about the uneven power levels of the Smash Bros. roster. The nature of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo as global products predisposed them to becoming household names, and the vast marketing supporting them understandably eclipsed PC gaming for most of the last 30 years. 

When I joined PC Gamer in 2008, I was still caveating this hobby to non-gamer friends and family by saying I "write about videogames, but you know, for the computer." There are few replacements for having a beloved mascot who has appeared on lunchboxes since 1985, and last year in a $1.3B film.

When did PC gaming become mainstream?

I think the factors that produced the wider recognition and adoption that PC gaming enjoys today reached critical mass around 2019. The tailwinds of PUBG and Fortnite behind it, this was the year where so many things seemed to coalesce, from Sony's surprising move to publish most of its games on PC, Discord's dominance as a chat app that also works on your phone, crossplay, and the continued outperformance of small-studio games like Slay the Spire.

Here's my attempt to compress the last three decades into a highlight reel:

1993-1999: PC Gaming's First Golden Age

• CD-ROMs, shareware, 3D acceleration
• Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, and the formation of the FPS
• Myst, X-Com, Civilization, Baldur's Gate, Thief, SimCity 2000
• Blizzard's trinity: StarCraft, Diablo, Warcraft
• Proto-MMOs like Ultima Online, leading to EverQuest
• The creation of modding as we know it
• (An uncountable number of innovations, important games, and gaming moments.)

2005-2012: The Dark Times

• The Xbox 360 is a tremendously popular alternative to PC gaming, going on to sell more than 84 million units
• Windows Vista and Windows 8 are perhaps the worst-ever versions of the OS, particularly for gamers 
• Games for Windows Live is abysmal, excruciating DRM that hamstrings the experience of major blockbuster games on PC
• Many disappointing and/or delayed PC ports of multiplatform games (ex.: Capcom manages to completely screw up Resident Evil 4, a universally beloved action game)
• Duke Nukem Forever releases
• But hey, Minecraft!

2014-2018: Rebirth

• CS:GO and League of Legends ascend as popular global esports
• Kickstarter paves the way for self-publishing
• Through Steam, independently-published games enjoy greater parity with blockbusters
• Modern VR headsets, though not widely adopted, represent a new performance frontier
• Variable refresh tech & 144Hz monitors
• Skill-based matchmaking replaces privately-operated servers as the standard multiplayer format
• Frequent Steam sales contrast the less-flexible retail prices of console games
• Nvidia Shadowplay enables wide clip sharing (now GeForce Experience)
• With Play Anywhere and other moves, Xbox signals its embrace of PC gaming
• SSDs come down in price
• Steam Workshop eases some of the pain of installing mods
• Japan learned to love PC gaming 
• Widespread adoption of PC gaming in China 
• We create the PC Gaming Show, in an effort to give PC gaming its own dedicated moment in the E3 spotlight 
• The Witcher 3, PUBG, Fortnite (special thanks to its tremendous merchandising machine, which put PC gaming in every school lunchroom in America), Overwatch, Stardew Valley, Dota 2, and the formation of the battle royale genre

2019-Present: PC Gaming's Second Golden Age

• Consoles increasingly resemble PCs
• Crossplay becomes standard
• Wide adoption of Discord as a social companion app
• DLSS significantly lowers the traditional hurdle of GPU performance
• The notion of a "PC port" as an inferior version of a multiplatform game fades 
• Helldivers 2, a PlayStation-published game, sells more copies on Steam than on PS5 
• "Weird little games" dominate 2024
• Nvidia briefly becomes the most valuable company in the world
• Baldur's Gate 3, Apex Legends, Slay the Spire, Valorant, Disco Elysium, Elden Ring, Factorio, Hades, Crusader Kings 3, Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers, Doom Eternal

Even with much left out, the line of dominoes that led us to where we are is surprisingly long. It wasn't one giant announcement made at E3 or the launch of one GPU that elevated PC gaming—it was an accumulation of many, often competing trends, games, genres, policies, and technologies from many people and groups, often not moving in lockstep, but nevertheless together contributing to the meaning of this open gaming platform.

PC gaming couldn't replicate Mario's marketing, but we could recreate him in the aggregate. 

Now what?

The trends that produced this age are still in play, and to my eyes, don't show signs of disappearing. Let's take stock of them:

Supported by modders and independent developers, PC will continue to be the place where new genres are born—colony sims, extraction, roguelike deckbuilders, prox-chat co-op horror—made possible by highly-moddable PC exclusives like Arma 4. The Steam Deck is a strangely cheap entry point to PC gaming at a time when inflation means every dollar counts. PC's proximity to streaming and the wider internet will make it the natural choice for the people who are most passionate about gaming. 

Small studios will continue to enjoy parity with the biggest publishers in the world, partly because their development timelines allow them to react to trends more quickly. There will be a steady beat of unexpected hits—more Balatros, Valheims, Vampire Survivors, and Lethal Companies. The still-increasing accessibility of the tools used to make and publish those games will continue to invite the 20-year-olds of the world to make Scary Thomas The Tank Engine FPSes. 

We will look back on Helldivers 2 as a significant moment for PC gaming, and perhaps not for the reasons you'd think. Yes, it's eyebrow-raising that a PlayStation game will be one of the best, and best-selling, PC games of 2024. But what I notice is how systems-driven Helldivers 2 is, a historically rare quality for a blockbuster and something spiritually associated with PC gaming. The unknowable firing behavior of the Arc Thrower. The way that Terminid limbs can be severed and, guided only by ragdoll chaos, seconds later fall from the sky and decapitate you without warning. The way that new enemies and weapons have appeared in-game for a handful of players, and are then publicly, playfully disavowed by the studio. Perhaps the biggest DNA-level connection to PC gaming is Helldivers 2's "game master" overseer Joel, a descendent of Lord British and other MMO admins and folk heroes.

All this stuff will sustain PC gaming's booming popularity. As a set of trends, they aren't surprising, but they are heartening. I mean, I don't need a Marvel movie star to profess their lifelong love for StarCraft in order to know that I'm playing games in the best place, but I won't complain. 

"Ubisoft Toronto has decided to conduct a targeted realignment to ensure it can deliver on its ambitious roadmap," a company representative said in a statement provided to PC Gamer. "Unfortunately, this will impact the roles of 33 team members who will be leaving Ubisoft. We are committed to providing comprehensive support to them, including severance and career assistance, to help through this transition."

The pursuit of "growth" or future ambitions is an unfortunate oxymoron that's also become a common justification for putting people out of work. Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive described it as "rationalizing its pipeline" in April, while Xbox chief Phil Spencer in March blamed an industry-wide "lack of growth" for the decimation of its workforce. 

In May, Square Enix announced its intent to "aggressively pursue" multiplatform game development with an increased focus on the PC market, a strategy that also necessitated layoffs; the following month Embracer Group unveiled a "human-centric" AI policy it said will "empower" its employees, just three days after closing Alone in the Dark studio Pieces Interactive outright.

Of course, none of these cuts are about people and games, they're about ensuring a number on a page goes up sufficiently quickly to keep investors happy. Those numbers went up very quickly indeed during the opening years of the Covid-19 pandemic, when we were all stuck at home and playing more games than ever. 

But with those restrictions now a thing of the past, that rapid expansion has slowed, and the executives who dove face-first into an overheated market as though it was going to last forever (and, let's be clear, who should have known better, that's literally their job) are now left to reckon with the aftermath—which, naturally, other people are going to have to pay for.

The layoffs at Ubisoft Toronto seem especially surprising in light of the fact that the studio was recently put to work on the struggling Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, which it's handling alongside the seemingly also-struggling Splinter Cell remake. Given that, you might think Ubisoft Toronto would need more people, not fewer, but Ubisoft said the layoffs will not impact any ongoing work: "Our plan remains unchanged, and our teams are working to deliver on the Splinter Cell remake and other projects at the studio."

Believe it or not, the plastic surgery may be the least sensational aspect of this story. OneCoin appeared in 2014 and was essentially a multi-level marketing scam with crypto at the core. The exchange was closed in 2017 and, following Ignatova's disappearance, she was subsequently charged with eight crimes in 2019, including wire fraud and securities fraud. The FBI added her to the most wanted list in 2022 with a $100,000 reward, later increasing it to $250,000. Now, it has increased that reward substantially: the question is why. 

The reward for information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova now stands at $5 million (£4 million). This follows hot on the heels of a BBC World News documentary, The Case of the Missing Cryptoqueen: Dead or Alive, which revealed Ignatova's links to Bulgarian crime networks, investigated a mafia boss that may be linked to her disappearance, and raised the possibility of Ignatova being murdered. 

Nevertheless the FBI's pursuit of Ignatova continues, though increasing the reward twentyfold feels a little like a Hail Mary.

"We are offering a reward up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of German national Ruja Ignatova, known as 'Cryptoqueen,' for her role in one of the largest global fraud schemes in history," said Matthew Miller of the US State Department.

Jamie Bartlett is the journalist behind the BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen, a fascinating unpicking of Ignatova's story, and believes the reward is aimed at close associates who may still be protecting her.

"I always felt the initial reward ($100,000, later increased) was a carefully chosen number," writes Bartlett on his Substack. "If Ruja was on the run, she would likely come into contact with various airport officials, harbour staff, chefs working on private yachts, shop assistants. $100,000 would not convince any serious criminals to hand her over—but it might be enough for various service workers who might cross her path.

"That, it seems, hasn’t been fruitful. In the last episode of The Missing Cryptoqueen, we examined some of her connections to organized crime groups, and many people believe that if Dr Ruja is still in hiding, it will be with their protection. $100,000 wouldn’t persuade a junior member of a crime syndicate or a personal bodyguard to call the FBI’s hotline—it’s far too risky. But $5 million just might.

"So to me, the increased reward is a sign that the FBI are now refocusing their efforts on the people around Dr Ruja, trying to tempt her close associates to get in touch. We will probably know within a few weeks if it’s worked."

OneCoin was one of those schemes where people earn commissions for getting others to become "investors" and convincing them to encourage family members and friends to do the same—a pretty straightforward pyramid scheme, in other words— and the money lost to the scam is estimated at $4.5 billion. Ignatova was the key factor behind OneCoin's growth: multilingual, highly educated, fabulously dressed, and capable of securing huge investments.

Ignatova is currently the only woman on the FBI's most wanted list. Other figures for which the FBI will offer a $5 million reward include Daniel Kinahan, allegedly the head of one of Europe's largest drug cartels, Semion Mogilevich, a Russian crime boss, and Yulan Adonay Archaga Carias of Honduras' MS-13 criminal gang, also known as "Porky."

Dr Disrespect, real name Guy Beahm, was one of the biggest streamers on Twitch when he was banned from the platform in 2020. The reason for the ban remained unknown until earlier this week: After a former Twitch employee alleged the suspension was the resulting of "sexting a minor" through Twitch's Whispers messaging system, Beahm himself confirmed this was the case, although he downplayed the nature of the conversation, describing it as "casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more."

Beahm did not reveal whether he knew the person he was talking to was a minor at the time of their interaction. Regardless, his effort to minimize the situation did not go as he presumably hoped—if anything, it had the opposite effect. The backlash on social media only intensified, and multiple companies have formally ended their relationship with him.

The first to cut him loose was Midnight Society, the game studio he co-founded in 2021, which announced on June 24 that after an investigation, "we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately."

That actually came one day prior to Beahm's admission, but the dominoes have been falling quickly since then. A series of Dr Disrespect-branded Turtle Beach gaming peripherals, including a headset, keyboard, and mouse, were removed from the company's website; Turtle Beach confirmed in a statement provided to PC Gamer that "we will not be continuing our partnership with Guy Beahm/DrDisRespect."

The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League, which began a promotional relationship with Beahm in 2022, has also severed ties, telling SFGate, "We take these developments seriously and will not be working with him going forward."

Earlier today, Dexerto reported that Beahm will also be removed from NBA 2K24 in a future patch. A 2K representative later clarified in a statement to PC Gamer that "The Dr Disrespect named player animations will be renamed in the next patch in August."

There's not an explicit connection to Beahm's admission of improper communications with a minor, but the website for Black Steel Bourbon, a company Beahm founded in 2022, is also offline.

The Dr Disrespect Champion's Club website—essentially a place to buy merchandise—has also been scrubbed of content, and now goes directly to a customer service form for order inquiries. The Wayback Machine indicates that all content was present on the site as recently as June 25.

Later in the day, after this story was published, YouTube demonetized Beahm's channel on its platform. "We have suspended monetization on Dr Disrespect’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy," a YouTube representative told PC Gamer. The rep said the channel was demonetized because of the allegations against Beahm, and noted that YouTube's guidelines cover behavior both on and off the platform. Beahm is also prohibited from making new channels to circumvent the demonetization.

Beahm has been silent on the matter since his June 25 statement, in which he admitted to the exchange of messages with a minor in 2017. He also said in that statement that he's "not fucking going anywhere," and that after an extended vacation he's "coming back with a heavy weight off [his] shoulders." But it's clear that despite his insistence that no actual wrongdoing was acknowledged, an awful lot of what he left behind won't be waiting for him when he returns.

Sheinberg felt Universal was owed and began putting the squeeze on several videogame companies over King Kong, including Nintendo, but the Donkey Kong creator was the only one that didn't buckle. Instead Nintendo fought and, in a case that ran from 1982 with a final appeal in 1984, won a decisive victory: Donkey Kong did not infringe on Universal's copyright, and remained Nintendo's character.

As with any legal case on this scale, the documentation around it is voluminous and held in the National Archives. Several years ago gaming historian Norman Caruso visited the archives to look through, and posted scans of some curiosities he found therein (which were recently recirculated by Supper Mario Broth, and picked up by Eurogamer).

One amusing wrinkle about the case was that creator Shigeru Miyamoto, honest to perhaps a fault, admitted he'd considered the name King Kong at first, though this was offset by the argument that in Japan "kong" was used as a generic term for gorilla. Among Caruso's findings are a page of further alternative names that, per Nintendo, were considered as alternatives to Donkey Kong. 

Funny Kong; Kong the Kong; Jack Kong; Funky Kong; Bill Kong; Steel Kong; Giant Kong; Big Kong; Kong Down; Kong Dong (!); Mr. Kong; Custom Kong; Kong Chase; Kong Boy; Kong Man; Kong Fighter; Wild Kong; Rookie Kong; Kong Holiday; and finally, Donkey Kong. 

Kong Dong is the ludicrous suggestion that leaps out most, although the real stunner here is perhaps that Funky Kong, first introduced in Rare's Donkey Kong Country series, has roots going back further than I'd ever thought. There are many further tidbits in Caruso's posts, like this Miyamoto doodle of a bear, or the original 1933 copyright certificate for King Kong, though perhaps the prize find is Judge Sweet's summation of the differences between the two gorillas.

"Donkey Kong is comical and entertaining. The player tries to maneuver Mario the carpenter up a structure of pink girders by having him climb ladders and run up ramps, while avoiding cement tubs, barrels, beams and other obstacles. The goal of the games is to maneuver Mario to the top, where he can free a girl from the hands of a big gorilla. The farcical, childlike and nonsexual Donkey Kong creates a humerous [sic] impression by jumping up and down and strutting back and forth to tease Mario.

"The Donkey Kong gorilla is thus quite different from King Kong, a ferocious gorilla in quest of a beautiful woman who goes on rampages, chases people, crushes them underfoot, or throws them to the ground, and fights with dinosaurs, giant snakes, airplanes and helicopters, all culminating in his tragic and bloody death. Donkey Kong's silly obstacles of pies, cement tubs, birthday cakes and umbrellas, its prim captive girl with her hair in pigtails, and its pleasant colours and humorous sounds, create a totally different concept and feel from the drama of King Kong.

"At best, Donkey Kong is a parody of King Kong, but a parody of this sort is not an infringement."

Perhaps the less said about the "prim captive girl with her hair in pigtails" the better, but this is a brutally efficient summary of two fictional gorillas and their worlds, and I would even say you get the sense Judge Sweet quite enjoyed playing Donkey Kong ("pleasant colours and humorous sounds"). 

Nintendo would of course ultimately prevail, with Judge Sweet ruling that King Kong was public domain and Universal had brought the case to extract licensing fees, later ordering it to pay Nintendo $1.8 million in costs. Ironically enough, you can now visit Donkey Kong Land at a Universal theme park. This was a victory of enormous consequence in Nintendo's history, and indeed held in such esteem that one of its most-beloved characters ended up named after their lawyer: John Joseph Kirby.

Back in 2015, while we knew all the best stuff was happening on computers, consoles were front of mind for most gamers, and you could barely go a month without someone declaring that PC gaming was dead. Now, in 2024, it's more alive than ever, fully mainstream with the big console companies porting their best to our favourite platform. Dare I say it? PC gaming is cool now. 

So how did it all happen? What made 2015-2024 such a golden decade for the hobby? Encapsulating it all would take a library, but here are what we think are the ten most important developments, happenings, and trends that changed the way we see PC gaming. 

The Witcher 3 becomes a landmark hit for RPGs

When The Witcher 3 launched in 2015, it felt impossible. It kind of still does. Combining a world that evoked the enormous scale of Skyrim with character work and writing that gave BioWare a run for its money, it set a whole new standard for what an RPG could be. 

In the process it achieved huge mainstream success and catapulted CD Projekt into the spotlight as one of the most important developers of the decade. And honestly, where would PC Gamer be now if not for Bathtub Geralt? 

DLSS, an incredible GPU tech innovation 

This landmark technology in the history of graphics cards uses AI-powered upscaling to allow developers to push game visuals further than ever before without sacrificing performance. 

When it first launched, it  was overshadowed by the more obviously flashy ray tracing, but it's gone on to be the far more impactful innovation of the two, fundamentally changing what's possible in PC games. Genuine technological leaps forward for gaming are rarer now than they once were, but this is one that quietly took the industry by storm. 

The fall and rise of No Man's Sky 

The release of No Man's Sky in 2016 was a watershed moment for the concept of the 'Everything Game'—that idea that developers could create an endless universe where you really could go anywhere and do anything. Sky-high expectations were dashed against the reality of what a small team was capable of, and for many it was a huge disappointment. 

Over the years since, however, Hello Games has buckled down, continuing to work on it and in the process setting the template for the modern videogame redemption story. The No Man's Sky of today contains everything that was promised and far more—but the fact that it's taken eight years past release to get there is its own cautionary tale about developer ambition.

The second great esports wave and bubble  

In the last 10 years, we've seen how big esports can get—and also how far it can fall. When the Overwatch League launched in 2018, with $20 million buy-in fees for teams in its first season and up to $60 million the next, it had a ripple effect across the industry. Team valuations and salaries spiked like never before as new leagues formed with their own multi-million dollar franchise fees, and for a while we saw esports on an incredible new level of scale and production value. 

That explosive growth couldn't last, however, and as Overwatch League began to stumble and eventually closed, many of those other new leagues were on the same trajectory, leading to the rocky state of things we see today. But the future is still bright—esports have more mainstream awareness and a bigger audience than ever, and grassroots work in the community is helping to carve out a new and exciting path forward. 

Baldur's Gate 3 caps off an RPG golden age 

Just as The Witcher 3 pushed the boundaries of the genre in 2015, in 2023 Baldur's Gate 3 blew them apart. No one could have predicted that the most exciting, most talked about, and most impactful game of that year would be an old school isometric RPG, but the intricate sandbox Larian crafted, coupled with surging interest in Dungeons & Dragons, made for a huge mainstream success story. 

There's a lot that makes Baldur's Gate 3 stand out—from its brilliantly memorable characters, to its use of mo-cap to bring dialogue to life, to its weird and wonderful world. But its greatest strength is just how much agency it hands to players. At every step you're given the power to choose what to do and how to do it, and almost any action you can think of is allowed and, in many cases, actively anticipated with a unique interaction to reward you. 

Whether it should set a new standard for RPGs is a controversial question, but either way it's a true landmark game, and I suspect we'll still be noticing its influence for decades to come. 

Twitch expands the meaning of gaming culture 

The last decade of PC gaming has been hugely shaped by Twitch and the many content creators who stream on it. Hundreds of millions now log in every month to keep up with their favourite channels, and streamers can be enormously influential over which games succeed or fail—including launching tiny indies into mega-stardom. 

Watching other people play games is now almost as integral to the hobby as playing games yourself, and Twitch's biggest hitters are some of the most famous celebrities of gaming culture. Meanwhile, the breadth of streams available only gets wider and, it has to be admitted, weirder. This was the decade where Jerma turned into a real-life Sim controlled by viewers, a goldfish played Elden Ring, and we saw Fortnite on a butt. Let's see television try and catch up to that.

Fortnite, cultural touchstone for nephews everywhere 

Speaking of Fortnite, any look back on the decade would be remiss not to acknowledge it. By pivoting a struggling co-op survival game into a battle royale shooter, Epic pulled off perhaps the greatest turnaround in PC history, and ended up with one of the most popular games of all time. 

But it's more than just a game, isn't it? It's a grand stage for enormous crossovers of different brands and franchises, and even a venue for virtual concerts and performances, regularly setting whole new expectations for cross-promotion between gaming and the biggest TV and film series around. While Mark Zuckerberg was waffling about virtual boardroom meetings where your legs look weird, Epic was out here building the real metaverse one MCU skin at a time, and to this day, whether you love it or hate it, it sits at the heart of PC gaming. 

Cosy farm sim Stardew Valley sells 30m copies 

Meanwhile, developer Eric Barone was discovering an entirely different form of surprise success. With its relaxing atmosphere and gentle pace, farming sim Stardew Valley redefined our idea of what a hit game could look like on PC, bringing new players to the platform in the process. Now, 'cosy games' make up an entire thriving genre that celebrates the principles it embodied. 

This is a decade in which the process of making games has been wonderfully open and democratised, with easier access to development tools than ever. Stardew is the perfect proof that major publishers and big studios aren't the be-all, end-all of the industry anymore. Made primarily by one person, it's ultimately sold over 30 million copies, and became one of the most well-known and influential games in the world. 

Discord becomes a universal gaming companion  

Before 2015, Discord didn't exist; now it's hard to imagine gaming without it. The voice chat headaches of the past are rapidly becoming a distant memory as we enjoy seamless communication in our games. 

More than just providing an easier way to connect with your friends, Discord has become a thriving hub for gaming communities. Players can meet and express their thoughts in a fast-moving, growing forum of like-minded souls—and even talk directly to developers, who've gained a whole new channel of feedback and community interaction.

The dawn of the battle royale 

Though the idea existed before in mods for games like Minecraft and ARMA 2, it wasn't until PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds launched in 2017 that the battle royale genre was truly established. It was a whole new perspective on multiplayer action, creating moments of high drama and chaos for a hundred players at a time, and it was irresistible. 

Quick on the heels of PUBG came Fortnite, and then Apex Legends, and soon the genre was enjoying such massive success that even firmly established shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield were forced to adapt. Now it's a staple and still thriving part of the world of multiplayer on PC, standing as proof that there's always room to shift the landscape with a compelling new idea. 

Beahm's statement, posted to Twitter, comes just one day after he was ousted from Midnight Society, the game development studio he co-founded in 2021. He said the decision was made "collectively," and that he agreed to do so because he doesn't want to "want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted."

His removal from the studio came just a few days after former Twitch employee Cody Conners claimed Beahm's ban, the reason for which had never previously been revealed, was the result of "sexting a minor" through Twitch's Whispers messaging system. In his initial response, Beahm did not directly deny the claim but instead insisted that he "didn't do anything wrong," and offered as proof the fact that he was paid out by Twitch in a settlement.

Now he has confirmed that interactions with a minor led to his ban, although he disputes the exact nature of the messages.

"Were there Twitch Whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes," Beahm tweeted. "Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more.

"Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with Twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me."

Beahm said he was previously unable to comment on the matter but is now free to do so because of the information already shared by two former Twitch employees. He made no mention of the age of the person he was corresponding with in his statement, nor did he indicate whether he was aware of the age at the time the incident occurred, but said he accepts "moral" responsibility for the incident, and that "it should never have happened." He also denied the allegation that he was intentionally preying on minors.

"I'm no fucking predator or pedophile," Beahm wrote. "Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people."

Beahm also insisted that he's not going away permanently: "I'm not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I'm taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I'm coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders."

Be that as it may, it seems clear that Beahm will not be returning to Midnight Society in any capacity. Shortly after his statement was posted, Midnight Society co-founder and studio head Robert Bowling tweeted, "If you inappropriately message a minor, I cannot work with you. Period."

Beahm's full statement on his Twitch ban is below.

THE TWITCH BAN 

Hello, I'd like to make a quick statement. 

Lets cut the fucking bullshit, as you know there's no filter with me. I've always been up front and real with you guys on anything that I can be up front about, and I'm always willing to accept responsibility... which is why I'm here now. 

First and foremost I do want to apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio. 

A lot of people have been left in the dark about what happened yesterday with midnight society and I, and we made the painful decision collectively, to have me step down. Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families and i'd never want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted. 

Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban. 

Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me. 

Now, from a moral standpoint I'll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That's on me. That's on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid. 

Now, with all this said, don't get it fucking mistaken, I’ve seen all the remarks and labels being throw around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone. I'm no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. That's a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about. Don't be labeling me as the worst of the worst with your exaggerations. Get the fuck outta here with that shit. 

But I think I've said what I needed to say regarding the ban itself. That's it. That's why twitch made the decision in 2020. 

To my team, community, industry friends that have supported me, I apologize, I wish I could've said all this sooner. You guys have always showed me and my family love and support throughout all these years we love you guys like you can't imagine. I have the fucking best community and circle. If any of this has made you uncomfortable, I get it. You don't have to support me anymore but just know you have always been greatly appreciated. 

But trust me when I say this...to all my haters that live and breath social media with zero real life experience, I don't give a fuck about you. 

Finally, if you're uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I'm a piece of shit, that's fine. But I'm not fucking going anywhere. I’m not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I'm taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I'm coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders. They want me to disappear... yeah fucking right.

Allen left Microsoft in 1983, following a diagnosis for Hodgkin's lymphoma, though remained on the board of directors until 2000 and became extraordinarily wealthy, with estimates putting his net worth at over $20 billion. During his life Allen donated more than $2bn to charitable causes, built museums, owned the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks football team, and amassed a quite incredible collection of computing and scientific artefacts.

Allen's art collection was auctioned in 2022, raising over $1.6 billion for charitable causes, and Christie's has now announced an auction of artefacts from his personal collection, to be held in New York this September (thanks, BBC). It's called Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection and includes a letter from Albert Einstein, written to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, which warns that Nazi Germany may be able to create atomic weapons, and suggests that the US start its own atomic programme.

This specific document is known as the Einstein-Szilard letter, as it was largely authored by Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard among others, but Einstein was chosen as the letter's signatory because of his reputation as one of the great scientific minds making it likelier Roosevelt would pay attention.  

The letter warns of recent advances in the theory of nuclear chain reactions as relating to uranium, and prophesies that "this new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory."

This letter played a key part in Roosevelt ordering further investigation and research funding before, three years later, the Manhattan Project and the development of the world's first nuclear weapons began. Christie's has given the letter an estimated value of between $4 million and $6 million.

Among other items being auctioned are a DEC PDP-10: KI-10 model computer from 1971, personally restored by Allen, a key machine in computing development that's expected to sell for between $30,000 and $50,000. There's also the spacesuit worn by astronaut Ed White, the first American to spacewalk in 1965, which is estimated to go for up to $120,000.

"Looking at the collection as a whole, you're able to see the building blocks of the most cutting-edge technology that exists today," said Devang Thakker of Christies. "Whether that's the smartphone in your pocket that has billions of transistors or the watch on your wrist that you can call someone with. The technologies and discoveries represented in this collection enabled those advances."

As with Visionary, the sale of Allen's art, all the estate's proceeds from Gen One "will be dedicated to philanthropy, as pursuant to Mr. Allen's wishes."

Immediately after the conclusion of the stream, Midnight Society announced that "we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately."

Beahm delivered his message at the end of a livestream today, saying he's "feeling a little fatigued," and growing tired of being on social media.

"Over the years it's been drained out of me, been drained out of my family and I," Beahm said, noting that he's been livestreaming since 2009. "And I just feel like—I had the mindset of, let's just see what happens today, how we're feeling. And I'll tell you, I'm just feeling burned out. Maybe it's time to start something new, something different. Challenge those creative senses. A desire to explore different realms, if you will."

Beahm said he's had a planned vacation coming up for a while now, and that he "might just extend that, starting today, starting right now."

The streamer concluded by saying that his "vacation" will be not just from streaming, but from his Midnight Society duties as well. "When I say step away, I think—I mean I'm gonna have to relay this to the Midnight Society, but I, you know—maybe I step away from there too. Just completely remove myself from the scene. It's what I need to do."

Beahm's message about stepping back from streaming and Midnight Society begins at 3:13:00.

It sounds more like what he was forced to do, however. Beahm dismissed the allegations against him during the livestream, saying he hadn't done anything wrong and that "all this has been probed and settled." But as soon as the stream was over Midnight Society announced on Twitter that Beahm is no longer a part of the project.

"On Friday evening we became aware of an allegation against one of our co-founder’s Guy Beahm aka Dr Disrespect," the studio said on Twitter. "We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved. And in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act. For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately.

"While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the fifty-five developers and families we have employed along with our community of players."

I've reached out to Midnight Society for more information and will update if I receive a reply.

Beahm was one of the biggest streamers on Twitch when he was suspended from the platform in June 2020. A reason for the ban was not provided—Twitch said only that it takes "appropriate action" when it has "evidence that a streamer has acted in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service"—and at the time even Beahm claimed to not know why he'd been given the boot.

He was eventually informed of the reason, something he acknowledged a year later when he announced he was taking legal action against Twitch. That lawsuit was settled in 2022, with neither party admitting wrongdoing and, still, no indication of the reason for the ban. 

And so it has remained until this past weekend, when former Twitch employee Cody Conners tweeted, "He got banned because got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product. He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon. The powers that be could read in plain text. Case closed, gang."

Conners didn't name Beahm specifically, but it was widely understood he was referring to Beahm, an assumption that quickly picked up steam after streamer Jake Lucky tweeted about it, prompting a reply from Beahm. "Jake seriously," Beahm tweeted. "I get it, it's a hot topic but this has been settled, no wrongdoing was acknowledged and they paid out the whole contract."

That comment only led to more intense speculation, with many onlookers pointing out that "no wrongdoing was acknowledged" isn't a direct denial of the claim. The following day, Beahm made a somewhat more specific statement.

"Listen, I'm obviously tied to legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch but I just need to say what I can say since this is the fucking internet," he tweeted. "I didn't do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid."

A day later, The Verge reported that another former Twitch employee, a member of the company's Trust and Safety team at the time of the incident, had corroborated Conners' tweet, telling the site that Beahm had used Twitch's Whispers messaging system to attempt to arrange a meeting with a minor at TwitchCon.

During a livestream today, Beahm indicated that he won't be commenting further.

"For those that are looking for me to expand on this weekend, not gonna," he said. "I already said what I needed to say. I don't give a fuck about this guy. That's it."

Conners had previously alluded to being aware of the reasons for Beahm's Twitch ban in 2023: Lucky noted in a subsequent tweet that Conners had used a promise of possibly sharing that information to promote a series of concerts in 2023. Conners apologized for those tweets but also noted that he has not been threatened with legal action over his allegations and implied that a screenshot proving his claim is now in circulation.

The allegations have also prompted others to say they've heard similar explanations for Beahm's lifetime ban from Twitch. Former Washington Post journalist Nathan Grayson, for instance, tweeted, "This is not the first time I have heard basically this explanation. nor is it the second, or third." He noted that all his sources are second-hand, and "were not in the room when it happened." 

The DramaAlert Twitter feed also noted that a similar claim was made two months prior to Conners' tweet by TinyChat cofounder Dan Saltman during an interview on Kick with the streamer Destiny, who was himself issued a lifetime ban by Twitch in 2022. 

With no first-hand account of the alleged incident, and no admission of wrongdoing from Beahm or acknowledgment of the situation from Twitch—I've reached out to the company for comment—the circumstances surrounding Dr Disrespect's lifetime ban remain uncertain, but the allegation has led to consequences. Midnight Society, a game studio co-founded by Beahm, has severed ties with the streamer, and he says he may take an extended "vacation" from streaming.