Firewatch dev plans to DMCA PewDiePie videos following recent racial slur

Sean Vanaman, the lead developer behind Firewatch, has revealed his plans to issue DMCA Takedown notices against PewDiePie's videos following a new controversy surrounding the YouTuber. Going forward, Vanaman says the studio plans to take down any PewDiePie video featuring a Campo Santo game after the video maker blurted out the N-word during a livestream.

While streaming PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds over the weekend, PewDiePie hit a moment of frustration, which ended in him calling his teammate the N-word. Given how large of a following PewDiePie has, clips of the incident began doing the rounds very quickly and various YouTubers and gaming industry folk began talking about it. Vanaman was the first developer to bring up DMCA takedowns in response to this latest controversy.

In a series of tweets, Vanaman said: “We're filing a DMCA takedown of PewDiePie's Firewatch content and any future Campo Santo games. There is a bit of leeway you have to have with the internet when you wake up every day and make video games. There's also a breaking point. I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make.”

From there, Vanaman said that he would like to see more developers pull footage of their games from PewDiePie's channel: “I'd urge other developers & will be reaching out to folks much larger than us to cut him off from the content that has made him a milionaire. Furthermore, we're complicit: I'm sure we've made money off of the 5.7M views that video has and that's something for us to think about.”

So far, PewDiePie hasn't responded but he will likely post a video at some point. . Update: PewDiePie has uploaded his own response to the situation. You can find an updated article on that, HERE. 

At the time of writing, his videos on Firewatch have been taken down though this looks to be a manual change to avoid any incoming DMCA strikes.

For those wondering about the legality of Campo Santo's DMCA plans, according to lawyer Ryan Morrison, the studio is within its legal rights to issue takedown requests against Let's Play content.

KitGuru Says: It feels like people only just got over the Nazi joke situation from earlier this year but now with this latest incident, things are going to stir back up again. What do you guys think of this new situation? 

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