Mad Mushroom cofounder Asmongold to 'step away' from company after anti-Muslim remarks

Streamer-affiliated publisher Mad Mushroom has announced that cofounder "Asmongold" (real name: "Zack," last name withheld) will be stepping away from the company following an anti-Muslim rant this week that led to him being temporarily banned on streaming platform Twitch.

The company shared the news in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). "As an indie game publisher, we exist to empower developers from all cultures and backgrounds to share their stories and passions through their art," it wrote.

"The viewpoints shared by Asmongold on Monday are antithetical to our mission. Zack will be stepping away from his leadership role in Mad Mushroom to work on himself and hold himself accountable."

The comments in question concerned the fate of Palestinian people in Gaza who are dying by the thousands as Israel expands its invasion in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas in 2023. Some human rights organizations have described the invasion as a genocide. In response to a viewer question about the invasion, Asmongold stated that he "did not care" if Gazans were being "genocided," claiming that Islamic Sharia Law itself is a foundation for genocide.

"If you want to consider a genocide as a systematic killing of a group of people they have genocide built into Sharia law right now, so no I’m not going to cry a fucking river when people who have genocide that’s baked into their laws are getting genocided," he said, going on to call Gazans "terrible people."

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His comments refer to an interpretation of Islamic Sharia law wielded by right-wing groups that push hatred of Muslims. According to groups like the Council for Foreign Relations, Sharia law is a religious and legal framework used by some nations and communities to guide their laws, but its stricter interpretations are not universally representative of the faith.

Asmongold apologized for his rant in a video on YouTube. "I was making a criticism of religious extremism and I almost made an effort not to draw a distinction between the two things...whenever I categorize everybody in the area as this like group then I’m the asshole and I was the asshole."

Mad Mushroom's post quoted a statement made by streaming organization OTK, whose various cofounders and streaming personalities make up Mad Mushroom's founding group. OTK said that it "denounces all forms of discrimination and violence, and that sort of behavior cannot be tolerated."

It said that Asmongold will also be "stepping away" from OTK's other affiliate companies Starforge and Mythic Talent. A spokesperson for Mad Mushroom declined to answer if the streamer was divesting his ownership stake in these companies, only repeating that he would be "stepping away" from leadership.

Asmongold's behavior highlights risks of streaming-based businesses

Asmongold's tirade is the latest in a string of hateful videos posted by the popular content creator. In February, he platformed the ongoing hate campaign targeting narrative consultancy studio Sweet Baby Inc in an interview with Karbrutus, the creator of the Steam Group named "Sweet Baby Inc. Detected."

He would spend the following months railing against "diversity, equity, and inclusion" efforts, lashing out at reporting on the alleged culture of sexism at Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science and casting diversity and inclusion initiatives as being cover for "predatory" monetization mechanics. He would regularly promote his work at Mad Mushroom and games he was publishing alongside these videos (he properly disclosed his ownership of the company when doing so).

The sharp contrast between these two types of videos spotlights the risks of "authenticity" that Mad Mushroom pitched to developers, as his authentically-held views about topics like inclusion or Israel's invasion of Gaza and Lebanon lived side-by-side with promoting games at the company.

Asmongold's apology video appears to indicate a desire to reshape that authenticity and turn over a new leaf. "For the last two years I think I've been slowly devolving into the most mean-spirited...rude, nasty, callous, psychopathic version of myself," he said.

"Maybe this is too far, maybe I need a course correction," he added later on. "I [hope] getting suspended is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I don't know whether that's going to be true but I'm going to try and do things differently and make sure to live up to that reality."

Developers suspicious of the streamer's overtures toward reform likely won't be comforted by follow-up comments to the video he posted on Reddit. "If you think that means my first stream back is going to be playing Dustborn and promoting Sweet Baby, I think you’ll be very disappointed," he wrote, seemingly taking a swipe at Red Thread Games' latest title (which he slammed on his channel) and Sweet Baby Inc.

"I’m not changing anything other than trying to be more positive and less mean-spirited."