On July 3, 2025, YouTuber and streamer Pirate Software, also known as Thor, officially announced that he would be stepping away from Offbrand Games following th
I’m pretty sure this is the same guy who was ranting about Godot “being woke” last year lol
I don’t understand why he’s getting flamed so hard. I get that it’s an unpopular take, but the reaction is way overboard. Why is the community like this?
It’s not just because of his stance on SKG. That’s just a catalyst.
He’s curated this image of being some kind of industry guru, through carefully edited shorts, appeal to authority fallacies and thorough moderation of dissenting opinion.
Because this is the first time (I’m aware of) he’s taken such a strong contrary position to a popular argument, it’s caused people to look closer and pull back the curtain.
What they’ve discovered is that they’ve been lied to (by the “hacker” who gained access via social engineering), and that’s what pisses people off.
The criticism of his character has been around for a long time, but his message was always louder. Until now.
Unpopular take is a bit of an understatement. He called the entire movement shit and trashtalked it instead of just disagreeing. He also, after all the responses, doubled down and said he hopes “the movement gets want it wants, but not what it needs.”
It’s also not really a one off situation from PirateSoftware
This just served as a way for others to shed light on how scummy he is as a person in general.
Is there some kind of summary I can read? I don’t follow him and only read a couple articles about the situation and it didn’t seem all that bad. But maybe it was.
The one video I half watched was him defending Godot from people overexaggerating, so I don’t see evidence of him being a scummy person in general.
There’s a couple of other stuff like abuse allegations against him and other minor controversies like cheating in puzzle games. You can look those up if you want.
Also, for context, I do not condone any of the harm sent his way. I think what he’s done is pretty scummy, but he and his team doesn’t deserve being sent death threats and swatted
For reference, this is the first time I’ve watched anything by PirateSoftware, and I’ve only heard about him in the past week or so. So I’m coming at this from a pretty neutral position and as someone who generally supports SKG (I’m not in Europe so I can’t sign, but I would if I could).
Clip of his response
Looks like he’s responding more to online bullying, not the petition. The only time he mentions Ross at all (and not even by name) is him giving sarcastic support (hope petition gets everything you asked for, but nothing you wanted), which underscores his view that the petition is overly vague.
The video summary is useful, it looks like PirateSoftware completely missed what the petition was for. I’ve read the petition and watched the supporting materials, and it’s clear to me that the focus is to make games (SP or MP) continue to work in some fashion for those that bought it after support ends. But it seems PirateSoftware somehow misinterpreted it as “all games must be playable SP after support ends,” which isn’t the case at all. Using the WoW example, players just want to keep doing raids w/ friends after support ends, and they’re happy to host the server themselves.
here’s the best I could find
I think that’s the one I read. Here’s my takeaway, I obviously haven’t confirmed everything (I’d rather not dig through his videos)
WoW controversy part
Idk, that situation looks dumb. I don’t know who the group leader was, but here’s how it seems to have unfolded:
someone says run (beginning of the clip), so he runs
on the way out he exhausts his manna trying to save the group
someone else says to come back because they’re getting wrecked
seconds later that same person says “just run”
I don’t think there’s a good outcome there. Either he returns to help the person getting wrecked and likely dies (I’m not familiar w/ WoW, but it seems he’s out of resources), or he runs and doesn’t die, and there are conflicting commands from the group. It was a tense situation and the group was looking for someone to blame. The article mentions the group worked it out.
I think what he’s done is pretty scummy
Here’s how I see it, taking things from PirateSoftware’s perspective:
misinterprets the petition (honest mistake IMO), probably because Ross Scott isn’t some suave presenter and jumped to conclusions (i.e. this is just some angry gamer who threw something together); that last part is absolutely speculation on my part, drawn from my own initial reaction
got a ton of unrelated backlash, like people digging through his history to defame him, death threats, etc
he doesn’t see his error, and instead sees Ross Scott as the unwitting leader of a horde of angry gamers who are going to accidentally destroy a chunk of his industry
What needed to happen is for PirateSoftware and Ross Scott to jump on a call to clarify the petition. It’s absolutely fine if he still thinks it’s a bad petition, but at least ensure you understand what it’s talking about so you can elucidate reasons for opposing it.
I think PirateSoftware is your typical self-centered streamer/YouTuber. He probably didn’t watch Ross Scott’s rebuttal, probably because the community’s reaction left a bad taste in his mouth. On the flipside, one of the streamers I like also initially rejected the petition (not sure if he changed his mind, I don’t watch him all that often), probably because the rational initial reaction to proposed laws is to reject them.
I think it’s an unfortunate situation. I wish Ross Scott was more charismatic. I wish PirateSoftware didn’t misread the petition. I wish they jumped on a call to work through the details, which would be especially valuable to Ross Scott to get the feedback of an industry insider. A lot of unfortunate things happened, but I still don’t think PirateSoftware is a bad person, I think he’s just a typical streamer who tends to jump to conclusions (easy to do when doing things live) and is a bit self-centered (which you need to be as a streamer IMO).
Anyway, that’s my take given the limited amount of time I’ve spent on this.
I don’t understand why he’s getting flamed so hard. I get that it’s an unpopular take, but the reaction is way overboard. Why is the community like this?
It’s not just because of his stance on SKG. That’s just a catalyst.
He’s curated this image of being some kind of industry guru, through carefully edited shorts, appeal to authority fallacies and thorough moderation of dissenting opinion.
Because this is the first time (I’m aware of) he’s taken such a strong contrary position to a popular argument, it’s caused people to look closer and pull back the curtain.
What they’ve discovered is that they’ve been lied to (by the “hacker” who gained access via social engineering), and that’s what pisses people off.
The criticism of his character has been around for a long time, but his message was always louder. Until now.
Unpopular take is a bit of an understatement. He called the entire movement shit and trashtalked it instead of just disagreeing. He also, after all the responses, doubled down and said he hopes “the movement gets want it wants, but not what it needs.”
It’s also not really a one off situation from PirateSoftware
This just served as a way for others to shed light on how scummy he is as a person in general.
Is there some kind of summary I can read? I don’t follow him and only read a couple articles about the situation and it didn’t seem all that bad. But maybe it was.
The one video I half watched was him defending Godot from people overexaggerating, so I don’t see evidence of him being a scummy person in general.
Clip of his response: https://www.twitch.tv/piratesoftware/clip/AssiduousTiredBoarRitzMitz-j0W1S8wiY9wGCtK7
Video summary (timestamped at where he just trashtalks the movement for a solid minute) https://youtu.be/R-RaQZPzhqU?t=494
I don’t know if there’s any real good TLDR for this situation, here’s the best I could find: https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/streamers/pirate-software-stop-killing-games-controversy-timeline-events
WoW controversy part https://deltiasgaming.com/pirate-software-world-of-warcraft-drama-explained/
There’s a couple of other stuff like abuse allegations against him and other minor controversies like cheating in puzzle games. You can look those up if you want.
Also, for context, I do not condone any of the harm sent his way. I think what he’s done is pretty scummy, but he and his team doesn’t deserve being sent death threats and swatted
For reference, this is the first time I’ve watched anything by PirateSoftware, and I’ve only heard about him in the past week or so. So I’m coming at this from a pretty neutral position and as someone who generally supports SKG (I’m not in Europe so I can’t sign, but I would if I could).
Looks like he’s responding more to online bullying, not the petition. The only time he mentions Ross at all (and not even by name) is him giving sarcastic support (hope petition gets everything you asked for, but nothing you wanted), which underscores his view that the petition is overly vague.
The video summary is useful, it looks like PirateSoftware completely missed what the petition was for. I’ve read the petition and watched the supporting materials, and it’s clear to me that the focus is to make games (SP or MP) continue to work in some fashion for those that bought it after support ends. But it seems PirateSoftware somehow misinterpreted it as “all games must be playable SP after support ends,” which isn’t the case at all. Using the WoW example, players just want to keep doing raids w/ friends after support ends, and they’re happy to host the server themselves.
I think that’s the one I read. Here’s my takeaway, I obviously haven’t confirmed everything (I’d rather not dig through his videos)
Idk, that situation looks dumb. I don’t know who the group leader was, but here’s how it seems to have unfolded:
I don’t think there’s a good outcome there. Either he returns to help the person getting wrecked and likely dies (I’m not familiar w/ WoW, but it seems he’s out of resources), or he runs and doesn’t die, and there are conflicting commands from the group. It was a tense situation and the group was looking for someone to blame. The article mentions the group worked it out.
Here’s how I see it, taking things from PirateSoftware’s perspective:
What needed to happen is for PirateSoftware and Ross Scott to jump on a call to clarify the petition. It’s absolutely fine if he still thinks it’s a bad petition, but at least ensure you understand what it’s talking about so you can elucidate reasons for opposing it.
I think PirateSoftware is your typical self-centered streamer/YouTuber. He probably didn’t watch Ross Scott’s rebuttal, probably because the community’s reaction left a bad taste in his mouth. On the flipside, one of the streamers I like also initially rejected the petition (not sure if he changed his mind, I don’t watch him all that often), probably because the rational initial reaction to proposed laws is to reject them.
I think it’s an unfortunate situation. I wish Ross Scott was more charismatic. I wish PirateSoftware didn’t misread the petition. I wish they jumped on a call to work through the details, which would be especially valuable to Ross Scott to get the feedback of an industry insider. A lot of unfortunate things happened, but I still don’t think PirateSoftware is a bad person, I think he’s just a typical streamer who tends to jump to conclusions (easy to do when doing things live) and is a bit self-centered (which you need to be as a streamer IMO).
Anyway, that’s my take given the limited amount of time I’ve spent on this.