What Happened to Yandere Dev? The Controversial Game Creator Posted a Lengthy Apology

The gist:

• Alex Mahan aka Yandere Developer was accused of grooming a minor.
• He posted a response to the allegations and presented his own side of the story.
• His long-awaited game, Yandere Simulator, is still yet to be released.

The world of gaming is no stranger to long stretches of development hell with no end in sight. In the past, we've had Duke Nukem Forever which was released after a tumultuous development and virtually no news updates to lukewarm reception. Final Fantasy Versus XIII underwent a similar process when it was changed to Final Fantasy XV and was released with a barebones story campaign and divisive reactions.

These days, gamers are still waiting to hear about titles like Beyond Good and Evil 2 that have gone silent since their announcements.

Then there's Yandere Simulator. This long-upcoming indie game is a stealth-action title that plays on the Japanese fiction trope of a character whose romantic crush on someone causes them to become violent to others in response.

Development on the game began in 2014, led by its main creator Alex Mahan, better known as Yandere Dev. But after years of pre-release builds and no confirmed release date, he's become rather infamous. Of course, now, he's stirred up some controversy. What happened to Yandere Dev?

Yandere Dev has garnered a mixed reputation throughout the course of his career. Despite having a YouTube following of over two million subscribers and semi-regular updates on the progress of Yandere Simulator, the near decade-long development of the game has left many openly displeased over its lack of a release window. In fact, its bloated development cycle has become something of a meme among its tentative fanbase.

Unfortunately, things still aren't looking good for the game given recent controversies. In late September 2023, videos and TikToks began emerging containing details about Yandere Dev's alleged inappropriate interactions with a minor. Reportedly, he had been grooming a Yandere Simulator fan who was underage. Some accounts have purported that he even made social media accounts to speak on behalf of the minor in question and even trained them on what to say to avoid allegations.

Soon after these videos were posted, Yandere Dev himself put up a lengthy post in the Yandere Simulator development blog to address the rumors.

He himself revealed that he had been interacting with a fan of the upcoming game who disclosed the fact that she was a minor upon their first voice chat together. He also admitted to making "the same type of vulgar jokes that [he makes] when voice chatting with [his] other friends."

Throughout his blog post, Yandere Dev even admitted to sometimes being open to some of the fan's alleged "flirty" remarks. However, he would also accuse a friend of the fan for convincing them to release their recorded audio sessions to start up the "grooming" narrative.

In his statement, he calls himself "foolish" for rationalizing an adult becoming friends with a minor and subsequently made a $1,000 donation to RAINN, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of sexual violence.

Unfortunately, this will likely amount to little when it comes to redeeming himself in the eyes of his supporters. Looks like Yandere Simulator is set to take even longer from here.