Dr Disrespect's Deadrop is moving to 'less frequent but much larger' updates
Instead of coming every six weeks, "snapshot" releases will now appear every few months.
Midnight Society co-founder Guy Beahm, better known as mustache-and-wraparounds streamer Dr Disrespect, announced today that the studio is slowing the pace of Deadrop "snapshot" build releases in favor of slower but more substantial updates through 2023.
"This ain't year one anymore," the good doctor said in today's video. "A shift has occurred, and the expansion has begun. In 2023, it's all about expanding on that foundation.
"Every snapshot will introduce significant new features and iterations to the game. But with expansion comes larger features and systems. This requires longer development cycles—that means snapshots will be less frequent, but much larger in scope. We'll be spending nearly three months of development time on every new release. And with every drop comes major advancements in gameplay and expansion of the tower."
The tower is the big building in which Deadrop takes place: a massive building turned self-governing city-state that sucks toxins from the heavily-polluted atmosphere of this alt-history Earth and refines it into "space dust," a powerful and addictive narcotic that it then sells to the rest of the world. It sounds a bit like the Peach Tree tower in the vastly underrated film Dredd but on a much larger scale, and in the absence of a powerful figure like Ma-Ma to keep things under control, various factions fight for control of Deadrop's towers and the resources they offer.
The latest build of Deadrop, "snapshot 5," will introduce the first sector in the tower, called Cold Storage, along with armor and helmets that will enable players to display their facial cosmetics, consumable healing items, and "tactical throwables" like smoke grenades. There are now six "fully completed" weapons to play with, which can be customized with 13 attachments.
Prepare for the shift... pic.twitter.com/SRFfl9rz08February 6, 2023
It also sounds like Deadrop will be expanding its player base in the relatively near future. Currently, testers are made up of people who shelled out $50 for a "founder's access pass" NFT, known in Deadrop parlance as "variants." The initial batch of 10,000 passes sold out and no more have been issued, but Dr Disrespect said in the video that "after this, everything changes, and there will be more than just variants dropping in."
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
A summer intern once saved Valve from a near-fatal lawsuit after a publisher 'decided to go World War 3' on it, and it all hinged on one email
Treyarch accidentally added legacy tokens to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, took them away, and then promised to restore them after realising they can't put the toothpaste back in the tube