IO Interactive has announced it will remove all of the post-launch content featuring Conor McGregor in Hitman 3 after a court ruled he raped a woman and must pay charges of more than £200,000.
In a post to Twitter, the developer said: "In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collaboration with the athlete, effective immediately. We take this matter very seriously and cannot ignore its implications. Consequently, we will begin removing all content featuring Mr. McGregor from our storefronts starting today."
Conor McGregor was an Elusive Target in Hitman 3, and missions let players hunt him down and kill him as Agent 47. In addition to the level, IO Interactive sold a DLC pack that contained cosmetic items specific to Conor McGregor, like a fur coat. It won't be available for purchase henceforth, but it's not clear yet whether those who have already bought the DLC pack will still have access.
In-game, McGregor's voice and likeness are used for a character named The Disruptor. While available in limited-time stints, it was set to be part of the game until 8th December 2024. Conor McGregor has stated he will appeal the verdict.
[source x.com]
Comments 68
You might want to lock the comments section on this. The details were rough.
The modern era in a nutshell, this one.
The contrast between what was being described in the courtroom and what was happening outside the courthouse was surreal, to put it mildly - Horror crime being analysed inside, young lads trying to get selfies with Mc Gregor outside.
Given the graphic details of what he did, I was wondering how long it would take for brands to start dropping him.
Suddenly it was getting too real. People would have a proper motive to kill him 😆
McGregor for all his entertainment, has repeatedly proven himself to be a heinous individual, so this news wasn’t a shock to me, just glad the victim got some form of compensation.
In terms of the DLC, if they’re removing it entirely I hope those who paid get a full refund.
I don't think they should remove the content, they should just rebrand him as some generic character. Use AI if you have to.
He's a shame on Irish people, disgusting individual.
Certain people are going to be unreasonably mad about this.
@themightyant That would be a good alternative, re-add the mission with a generic Irish fighter, maybe just make it a free update too.
@Orpheus79V Not unreasonable if they aren't refunded. I don't disagree with the removal itself as long as people who paid for the DLC get their money back.
@WiiWareWave The elusive target missions are always timed, and they haven't said if the cosmetics will be removed for people who bought them.
Good. No one should promote criminals.
The fact that he's not going to jail shows a very flawed justice system.
@Orpheus79V Ah! I see.
@WiiWareWave No problem.
With the verdict in mind, I'm wondering how they came to this collaboration to begin with. Court cases can drag out for a while, surely IO would have been aware of the allegations when they decided to add McGregor, thus aware he might be found guilty and have egg on their face.
@Pat_trick he was sued in the civil court, so it's not a criminal charge, and therefore no conviction. The burden of proof in the civil court is lower than the criminal court.
@Vorflynn That's unfortunate but it makes sense. Thanks for the info.
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Guys a scumbag and should be consigned to obscurity. If they keep the mission and change the character to someone generic (like Mike Tyson being removed from Punch Out) then this is the right thing to do. If they get rid of the missions entirely it’s a shame but understandable.
@Rob3008 having lived in Dublin for a while I can confirm that the Irish are indeed a lovely bunch of lads.
@Johnnycide I'm Irish and live in Dublin and can confirm that's 100% true 😂
To be fair, it wasn’t very good content to begin with…
@Jaz007 IO don't want a rapist in their game, so are removing him. Makes sense to me. It'd be weirder if they left a now-known rapist in their game.
His removal in Hitman isn't surprising given the court decision. I wonder what will happen to those that bought the DLC pack. It would be nice if IOI could keep his mission, but just switch out his character for a generic wrestler NPC.
@Jaz007 That's fine to believe that. I personally believe he did, just as the jury decided also; that and the fact he's a nasty piece of work in general so I wouldn't put it past him to do such horrible things. It's shocking yes, but coming from him? Completely unsurprising.
Considering he's been trouble for years i'm surprised he was even part of it to begin with. The man is utter scum.
Absolutely deserved. He is a rapist and you can say that as it’s been proven in court. Rapists shouldn’t be celebrated.
@Jaz007 Its always someone with an anime profile pic/gif that have opinions like this. One McGregor has a history of being a very vile man, its extremely easy to believe he's done what he's done because he's never once painted himself as even just an ok person and two this content wasn't paid content it was free and timed like the Sean Bean stuff.
@Jaz007 the guy is a terrible person and i think if you did any research on him you would see that too. What you are hearing in court is only the very tip of the iceberg. The guy is a rancid person and is a disgrace to our country.
@DennisReynolds he even punched an old man in the face at a pub because the guy refused to take a shot with him. Complete wrongen of a human, thinks he's allowed to do anything to anyone as he sees fit.
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IO made money from this regardless - these things get people to buy games. So what does this accomplish? They should be giving people refunds if they actually care
@Jaz007 You think rape is "far fetched"? Do you know how many men commit sexual assault and get away with it? Rather than side with a man who clearly has a history of violence and drug abuse (of which the drugs are still going on), maybe for once let women have a deserved victory. Even if he does, unfortunately, still walk freely.
@UntilRespawn It was free content so the players aren't really losing anything
Man was a disgrace to Ireland long before this. Beating a man for not taking his drink, spreading hate trying to incite riots. Absolute POS.
Usually don’t chime in on this kind of thing but I agree 100% with the removal, though I’d like to see people who paid get a refund. Never played the game myself but it’s not a good look to associate with this guy. Given the defence argument was literally just “she’s a gold digger”, yeah. Eff this guy. Rape is a horrific crime, and capitalizes on ensuring the victim remembers it. Truly evil.
Only thing I've heard about this ..is apparently he said that now you know what it feels like when I tapped out...which seems pretty farfetched...but who knows ..he is a nut job ...but also plenty of woman have no issue lying about such things
@JB_Whiting Clearly twisting his words
Yeah I don't blame IO. Best to just remove everything about him in the game.
The only shock is people can't believe it's true. He's always been a scumbag. IO real mistake was actually working with him at all. There was no reason to ever use him in their game.
@Jaz007 Way to defend a rapist and thug.
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@Jaz007 He's been found guilty of rape by people way more involved then you or me so do you really want to die on this hill?
Yeah sorry i'm inclined to side with the survivor who the courts sided with over a violent rapist thug who has spent his entire life causing nothing but terror and violence. Its such a shame this was a civil matter and not criminal as he needs to be locked up.
Should've never been in the game in the first place. A real scumbag of a human.
@Jaz007 what makes you think the allegations are far fetched?
This is just one rape charge that stuck because the victim stood up to the threats & attacks outside her house before the court case.
There’s a history of his victims having their houses broken into, cars burnt, witnesses getting attacked until they withdrew their charges.
McGregor’s sister is married to one of the Kinahan gang (do a bit of research & look them up). They do a bit of a number on people who don’t stay quiet from his shenanigans.
He was a scum bag before he got into the UFC & he’s even moreso now that he’s famous & has money.
I liked him when he first came to UFC, but he revealed himself as human garbage very quickly.
What little I know of him is that he's a despicable thug. As much as I appreciate IOI as a developer I have no sympathy for them or other brands now being burned by association. That being said, as long as they've made money from it they won't care.
As for those in the comments defending him because "women lie", you're only demonstrating how ignorant and out of touch you are. Women are not queueing up to make spurious allegations of sexual assault so they can go through weeks/months/years of having their character ripped apart by legal professionals, the press and people on social media. These types of crimes are vastly under-reported and it's attitudes like that which make women feel they won't be believed.
I have my doubts that io interactive has taken any of this seriously. I don’t follow MMA or mainstream popular culture, but I even knew this guy was a royal sh*tbag
@Jaz007 "...it’s also true that many women lie about being assaulted..."
You got some stats to back that up, bucko?
If guilty, should 💯 go to jail for long, not just pay his way out, and actually , if couldnt pay, it would also eliminate many false claims too.
Anyhow, weird coincidence for me, i was pondering to buy woa h3, having h1 and h2 already,
And was trying the free starter pack of it, version ps4, and had tried the arcade mode available mission with him on that island castle map.
And i had just downloaded last eve the ps5 version to see how much improved the graphics could be on it, with the starting area with small concert there.
Seems i wont now, content taken off already.
Oh well.
They should use budget on new scenarios, maps etc instead of paying public personalities.
Shame you have to pay again for all h123 content when u already have all except new content in h3 and woa.
McGregor tried to insist the area was a Ghetto once but Mozzer’s parents are from here; Rhys Meyers people like that. Poldark yeh they’re all posh fellers. He’s just a raging ned
@Vorflynn Regardless, there are convictions that have been overturned for the extremely wealthy. You must know this?
He has a well documented history of violence y people r having a hard time believing this is weird its like the people defending Diddy he was a suspect in 9 murders and multiple assaults people need to stop putting celebrities on such high horses
@DonJorginho If you see the new generation of entertainment with a Jake Paul to name one its not getting better. The worse you act the more you get followed it's a sad thing to see.
@Jaz007 It's a big thing to know that lots of rich people get away with everything from assault to rape and even murder Justice can be blind if you have a big wallet.
A guy like Bill Cosby got away because the prosecution messed up and can't convict him. The worst thing is that he acts like he is innocent he wasn't but he can't be prosecuted.
The Chris Brown who beat up Rihanna so severely got away with it even with a clear cut case money makes things go away. That man assaulted many women why he still is not behind bars is a travesty.
Andrew Tate who has no respect for women and that somehow is a rolemodel for some men who is accused of human trafficking.
Diddy who brutally assaulted his girlfriend got away with it let's hope something sticks with this monster and all of him crimes.
Stop fighting for dirt bags that somehow keep getting away with everything because of people like you who make excuses for them.
You have a grandma, mom or sister show some respect by not saying these disgusting things. And act like all women are liars.
Not me not knowing what is going on
@NomNom I envy you, far too much horrible stuff going on in the world I wish I could not be aware of.
all that DLC effort going to waste. Just reskin and rename him like they did in football games when they couldn't get the license.
Glad that the fictional representation of a rapist is out of the game so I can get back to using the main character to endlessly murder people 🙂
I didn't know anything about this but I never liked him anyway. Glad he's out of the game. Should be going to prison!
@Flaming_Kaiser Excuse me? Act like all women are liars? I specifically said those who lie make it harder for the real victims (don’t tell me no one’s lied before, it’s happened in famous cases before). Nor did I ever say he was a good person.
Your premise is that a famous not great person must have done it which is false. Yes you just listed some terrible men and I want to see Tate locked up personally. His own mouth hasn’t left room for doubt.
You go ahead and retract what you said about acting all women about being liars though, that’s some manipulative garbage right there because you know I never said or implied that, but you think you can guilt me by pretending I did.
Always sad to hear this sort of thing. Sexual violence is such a scourge on the world, and it saddens me deeply how many role models for young men are misogynists and/or have committed heinous acts against women.
@DonJorginho All humans are "heinous" from birth.
@JustinTimberlake never seen a baby abuse women or beat up an old man at a pub for not drinking his own brand of cheap whiskey tbf
I personally don't attach much weight to what Civil Courts say, as the burden of proof is so low.
A balance of probabilities. Essentially a coin toss. 50/50.
They are often used by those with access to funds to do a 50/50 dice roll on winning.
We've seen "beyond reasonable doubt" criminal courts jail people for 17 years for the same thing when they were innocent (Andrew Malkinson), so I dismiss anything a Civil Court decides in such cases.
That said, I understand why firms would distance themselves from an individual.
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Good. The correct move. Rapists and abusers don’t deserve any air time. Insufferable neck beards will still bleat about ‘reasonable doubt’ but at least Conor’s visibility and wallet takes a hit.
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@Jaz007 My examples are clear if you are famous you get of way easier.
Chris Brown, Bill Cosby, Diddy money makes justice go blind or go easy on you.
Where is my statement that all rich people are guilty I gave prime examples of people who have so much evidence against them or have so many people who come forward.
Who lied with this case? If you are going to say something like this on a article like this what is your message then? Yeah it's not the first time somebody has lied that goes both ways?
Even not convicted criminals can be guilty the problem is that being raped or abused is not something that is proven so easily and being terrified of your job or career can be a understandable thing to think about before coming forward.
That is why people step forward later because there are people who have had the same happen to them so you can feel more strengthened because its not one person versus one where if you lose you get responses like see she or he is a liar.
@ChimpMasta With this bizarre reasoning nobody is a criminal. How about women or men that don't have the funds to go court and the guy or women walks? Not even all cases make it to court one thing does seem to happen a lot of you have the funds you can bury people in costs. You want a more honest system make it more about justice then getting money make it less of a claim culture.
@Flaming_Kaiser you are correct. No one is a criminal.
That’s because civil courts don’t convict you of crimes. You don’t become a criminal. They determine “liability” with a lower burden of proof and will issue a financial judgement (compensation) rather than criminal punishment.
Criminal courts create criminals, and the burden of proof is higher.
There are reasons why people take “crimes” to civil courts, and having overwhelming evidence isn’t one of them.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
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