Ready or Not studio fires community manager for saying 'nothing of value was lost' following Charlie Kirk's shooting

Void Interactive, developer of the controversial SWAT simulator Ready or Not, has confirmed that it has terminated its community manager following an uproar over a comment they made in the game's Discord about Charlie Kirk's murder.

As reported by Kotaku, the comment was made after the community manager, known as Kaminsky, was asked to add variations of Kirk's name to the list of filtered words on the Discord server. "Funny you mention that because me and my roommate are literally just talking about him getting shot," Kaminsky replied. "All I have to say is: Nothing of value was lost."

(Image credit: Kaminsky (Discord))

Images of the comment were quickly shared on Reddit and social media channels, along with demands that Kaminsky be fired. Void Interactive very quickly complied: Kaminsky was removed from the Discord server and their presence largely scrubbed from Void Interactive's website, and just ahead of the weekend the studio posted a message on Steam saying Kaminsky was gone.

"We are aware of comments made by our community manager about a recent tragic event," Void Interactive wrote. "These statements do not reflect our values or represent our company.

"We have ended our relationship with this individual and reminded our team of the responsibility we all share when communicating on public platforms. Our focus remains on fostering a respectful and professional community around Ready or Not."

(Image credit: Void Interactive)

Kaminsky's dismissal came at roughly the same time as that of Drew Harrison, an artist at Ghost of Yotei studio Sucker Punch, who was fired after nearly 10 years for writing, "I hope the shooter's name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back"—a reference to Luigi Mangione, the prime suspect in the 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—shortly after Kirk was shot.

Earlier today, Storm Lancers developer ProbablyMonsters announced that it too had fired someone for making comments it said "were offensive and violated our social media policy." Other studios, including Blizzard and Bethesda, have also been targeted by campaigns calling for similar crackdowns on employees making negative comments about Kirk.