Bungie has come out to clarify that its not actually paying Herschel “DrDisrespect” Beahm to play Marathon after the streamer pretended to be a sponsored partner ahead of the extraction shooters February 26 server slam. Beahm is claiming this as his latest victory.
Just finished our photoshoot for tomorrow and the team sent me a sneak peek, he posted on X on Wednesday. Tomorrow is going to be CINEMA DROPS ON #marathonpartner. It was accompanied by a screenshot of his face in the style of a Marathon runner character being edited ahead of the stream.
People started wondering if he is actually a paid partner or was just trying to troll the streamers who are. Bungie responded from the games official account to clarify. Dr. Disrespect is not partnered with Marathon the game. Users proceeded to stick a community note on Beahms tweet to make it clear.
This is the industry in 2026. These people are actually real and dead serious too. I love it.#marathonpartner pic.twitter.com/naQYOWs2E1 — Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) February 25, 2026
The banned Twitch streamers brand being so toxic that companies have to officially distance themselves from him at every turn was deemed a win by Beahm. This is the industry in 2026, he wrote after the fact. These people are actually real and dead serious too. I love it.
It was a repeat of the stunt he pulled last month after pretending to be invited to the Highguard preview event just so he could turn around and laugh at all his critics when the studio behind that hero shooter also publicly disavowed any connection to him.
This is what Authenticity in the Algorithm Age looks like. The industry is louder now. More political. More automated. More divided. Respect feels shorter. Attention feels thinner, Beahm posted to his personal account last week with the apparent help of AI. But real community still matters. And when you build it the right way with identity, consistency, and standards, it doesn’t disappear just because the timeline refreshes.
- CultureNews Horizon Multiplayer Game Gets Surprise Playtest The Same Weekend As Marathon Server Slam Two upcoming Sony live-service games have competing betas for some reason By Zack Zwiezen Published February 24, 2026
- CultureNews PlayStation Fans Are Furious And They’re Taking It Out On Marathon Bungie's upcoming live-service first-person sci-fi shooter is landing at the worst possible time following Bluepoint's reported shutdown By Zack Zwiezen Published February 20, 2026
- Tips & Guides Bungies Marathon Will Let You Play For Free Before Launch And Earn A Helldivers Trinket The open beta weekend coincides with the Steam Next Fest By Ethan Gach Published February 12, 2026
- CultureNews Everything We Saw At PlayStations Big February State Of Play Showcase Sony rolled out an hour-long presentation to talk about upcoming PS5 games By Kenneth Shepard Published February 12, 2026
- Entertainment The Best Jurassic Park Sequel In A Decade Is This Creepy YouTube Series The Muldoon Logs are so much better than most of the Jurassic World movies By Zack Zwiezen Published February 4, 2026
- CultureOdds and Ends BabyTuber Thumbnails Are The Best The visual language of algorithm juicing on YouTube gets repurposed into something wholesome and hilarious By Ethan Gach Published January 28, 2026
