Rogue Company Removes Dr. Disrespect Skin, Refunds Players Following Controversy

Developer First Watch Games and publisher Hi-Rez Studios have decided to remove the Dr. Disrespect Skin from the live-service shooter Rogue Company and will refund players who bought the cosmetic.

The situation comes after the Twitch streamer became embroiled in controversy for supposedly messaging a minor inappropriately. Rogue Company has not had an update in almost a year, which makes the removal of the skin completely surprising for players.

Rogue Company Removes Dr. Disrespect Skin

The removal of the Dr. Disrespect skin was first seen on Reddit by CptnAwesomeSaus and was later confirmed by the game's publisher. On top of this, a map that was dedicated to the former content creator will also be removed from Rogue Company in the near future.

The official account of Rogue Company on X, formerly known as Twitter, confirmed that they will be issuing refunds to applicable players this upcoming week. The shooter announced in 2020 that it had partnered with Dr. Disrespect for a custom map known as "The Arena," according to TheGamer.

This also included work on a unique skin that was modeled after the former content creator and was sold for 2,000 Rogue Bucks, which is roughly $20. On the other hand, the map was supposedly designed in collaboration with the former Call of Duty employee.

The bundle for the items was released around the same time that Dr. Disrespect, whose real name is Heschel Beam, was banned from Twitch for at the time "unknown reasons." But recently, those reasons have come to light and were revealed to be messages with a minor.

And in the wake of those revelations, Dr. Disrespect has taken a break from streaming but there have been reports that he has plans to come back at some point. Despite refunds being confirmed, they are said to be coming in the form of Rogue Bucks and not real-life money.

Cutting Ties With the Former Content Creator

While many fans of the former content creator still believe that he is innocent, many brands have already started to part ways with Dr. Disrespect, including NBA 2K. With the removal of the skin, one player asked for a refund of $40, said Esports Illustrated.

Some people also replied that Rogue Company was making the right decision to remove the skin but argued that those who previously bought it should not lose out. More and more complaints started to come out after even more players logged in to see their accounts losing the skin in question.

Despite Rogue Company announcing the refund, many players were left dissatisfied as a lot of them pointed out how the game giving out Rogue Bucks instead of cash is not what they wanted. Frustrated players claim that this was simply the developers not wanting to lose money by refunding actual money.

The controversy also had significant impacts on Midnight Society, the game studio that Dr. Disrespect co-founded in 2021. For nearly three years, the former content creator was the face of the studio and its debut game Deadrop, which was billed as a "vertical extraction shooter," according to PCGamer.