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Hall worked as a security specialist for Blizzard.[5] He left the company in February 2016[citation needed] to work at Amazon Games as an automation engineer.[8]
Hall started his own independent video game company, Pirate Software, where he currently works as chief executive officer.[10] In June 23, 2016, he published his first game, Champions of Breakfast.[8][11]
In early 2017, Hall started his Twitch channel, "PirateSoftware", focusing on streams developing Heartbound and Q&A about game development.[9][better source needed] Hall left Amazon Games in September 2016 to work at the Eagle Research Group as a cyber security specialist until leaving in November 2017 to work on his indie projects.[citation needed]
In late 2023, Hall gained popularity on YouTube Shorts, going from 13,000 subscribers to 1.1 million subscribers in a span of two months.[9][better source needed] At The Streamer Awards 2023 and 2024, Hall won the categories "Best Software and Game Development Streamer" and "League of Their Own".[12][13]
In addition to software development, Hall owns and operates a ferret rescue in Washington, which provided care for over 50 ferrets in 2024. The operation hosts a live feed of the ferrets on their Twitch channel, "FerretSoftware", to fund the venture.[9]
In March 2016, Hall announced the development of Heartbound. In December 2016, the game was listed on Steam Greenlight. In February 2017, Pirate Software launched a Kickstarter for Heartbound, reaching $19,272 of its $5,000 goal in a month. In December 2018, an early access build of the game was released on Steam.[8][11] Critics initially comparing the release favorably to other titles in the genre, such as Undertale.[8]
In January 2025, Steam marked the game as "abandoned" after 13 months of no updates to the game's stable branch.[19] On February 1, the game received a small update.[20]
Controversies
Hardcore World of Warcraft incident
In January 2025, Hall participated in a World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore dungeon run with fellow Twitch streamers in the "OnlyFangs" guild. During a chaotic pull, Hall fled the fight, resulting in the permanent death of two other high-level characters.[21] While fleeing, he justified his actions by stating that he was out of mana while also taking issue with how another party member communicated. Critics argued that Hall, as a mage, had the abilities to help save his teammates but prioritized his own survival.[22] Hall was kicked from the guild by its leader, Sodapoppin, following these events. Hall claimed that his removal was in response to his threats to report other streamers to Twitch, and he claimed that they were inciting their viewers to attack him. [23]
In August 2024, Hall released two videos to his YouTube channel detailing his opposition to the Stop Killing Games movement and specifically Stop Destroying Videogames, its petition registered with the European Citizens' Initiative. Hall criticizes its supposed vague language and unrealistic goals, the resulting burden for indie developers, and the potential harm to the video games industry.[24][25][26]
In June 2025, a month before the deadline of the European Citizens' Initiative petition with only 400,000+ out of the mandated 1 million valid signatures, Ross Scott, the founder of Stop Killing Games, published a video anticipating the end of the campaign. Directly addressing Hall's stance on the movement, Scott accuses him of spreading misinformation, arguing that Hall's critiques were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the movement's goals.[25] Scott also stated that Hall's stance killed momentum for the movement.[24] Hall faced severe backlash after Scott's response, losing over 120,000 subscribers within a month.[27]
In June 2025, Hall left Offbrand Games after supposed review bombing of their games due to the backlash. However, many critics claimed that Offbrand Games' titles on Steam did not receive a significant increase in negative reviews in the days following Scott's video.[17] Hall doubled down on his thoughts on the initiative, claiming that abuse was not enough for him to retract his statements.[17]
On July 4, 2025, Hall stated that he has received multiple death threats and has been swatted due to the controversy.[21][28]
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