Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming has confirmed that the Ghost of Yotei studio has fired one of its employees over comments made in response to the Charlie Kirk assassination. The executive also went into a bit more detail regarding the decision as part of an interview covering various aspects of Ghost of Yotei's development.
Charlie Kirk is a polarizing political pundit who was assassinated on September 10, during a speech at Utah Valley University. In the aftermath, some critics of Kirk’s right-wing ideology made light of the assassination on social media. Among them was Drew Harrison, a former Sucker Punch artist who posted "I hope the shooter's name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back" on Bluesky. The remark was a reference to Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
Accused Charlie Kirk Shooter Allegedly Engraved Helldivers 2 Stratagem Code on Unfired Casing
The accused Charlie Kirk assassin allegedly engraved a reference to Helldivers 2 on an unfired casing.
Sucker Punch Confirms Dev Firing Over Charlie Kirk Joke
In a recent interview with Game File's Stephen Totilo, Sucker Punch co-founder and CEO Brian Fleming confirmed the recent reports that the Ghost of Yotei developer was fired over her Charlie Kirk assassination joke. "The facts are accurate," the executive said when asked about the story. "Drew's no longer an employee here." Elaborating on the circumstances that led to her firing, Fleming said: "I think we're aligned as a studio that celebrating or making light of someone's murder is a deal-breaker for us, and we condemn that, kind of in no uncertain terms."
Totilo pressed for further details, asking how a person’s decade of contributions—Drew spent ten years at Sucker Punch—was weighed against her social media comments before the company decided to fire her. However, he was cut off by a Sony representative present at the interview, who said the studio would not be commenting any further.
Drew is not the only game developer who found themselves out of a job for commenting on the September 10 event in recent days. A Ready or Not community manager was also fired for expressing their views on the Charlie Kirk assassination, which included writing "nothing of value was lost" on Discord.
I think we're aligned as a studio that celebrating or making light of someone's murder is a deal-breaker for us, and we condemn that, kind of in no uncertain terms.
22-year-old Tyler Robinson was charged with Charlie Kirk's murder, with Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announcing he was seeking a death penalty due to the aggravating circumstances of the crime, such as endangering other people and performing the assassination in the presence of a child. The event also prompted U.S. House Oversight Committee to call for CEOs of various gaming platforms to testify on the radicalization of their users. Valve's Gabe Newell, Twitch's Dan Clancy, and Discord's Humam Sakhnini are among those invited. The summons is not a subpoena (yet), meaning it could theoretically be declined without significant consequences.
Ghost of Yotei
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 87 /100 Critics Rec: 94%
- Released
- October 2, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Sucker Punch
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Open-World
