Overview

YandereDev Grooming Allegations refers to accusations that infamous game designer YandereDev allegedly groomed a 16-year-old over Discord, which led to several people associated with the Yandere Simulator video game pulling out of the project. The grooming allegations, which emerged in August and September 2023, subsequently resulted in a considerable backlash against YandereDev online as the controversy sparked widespread discourse.

Background

Allegations revolving around YandereDev being creepy or otherwise not normal have been going on for over a decade, with each new controversy, including Discord Ban Speedruns, helping to promote his name and the game.

On August 1st, 2023, YouTuber Pixels After Dark^[1] uploaded a concise history of previous and recent drama involving YandereDev, titled "How Yandere Dev Profitted Off His Predator Allegations," earning over 100,000 views in two months (shown below).

The grooming allegations mentioned in Pixel's video, however, were different from what would later come out. On September 25th, 2023, a video began to float around online of someone who was alleged to have been groomed by YandereDev, with masked audio recordings and chat logs included. This video was later reuploaded to YouTube by the channel Stimpson J. Cat,^[2] properly titled (REUPLOAD) with credit being given to YouTuber and streamer AllyMcC, but was also removed.

On September 25th, AllyMcC^[6] posted on her X account (@xAllyMcC)^[6] noting that the video with alleged evidence of YandereDev grooming a minor was taken down for copyright (seen below). As of September 26th, the video remains down.

Ally McC @xAlly McC Follow The YandereDev video with evidence of him allegedly grooming a minor has been taken down for copyright under the victim's real name, though I have strong reason to believe this wasn't actually her doing. Figuring out options right now. .ull Verizon 8:21 AM Against Yanderede liber Y YOU upe 4.22 AIVI to me ✓ YouTube 0 100% ... Hi Ally McC, We received a copyright removal request for your video. Based on applicable copyright law, we removed your video from YouTube: Video title: The New Allegations and Evidence Against YandereDev Video url: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=XyOSBp3arDo Content found during: 0:14:57 - 0:22:53 X

Developments

On September 25th, 2023, X user @VAMichaelaLaws^[3] (the voice actress and voice director of Yandere-Chan) posted a note in which she said that after a decade of supporting the project and having numerous contributions on all levels, she was officially stepping down from it due to the recent allegations. This subsequently sent shockwaves through the community, with many quickly calling the game finally dead in the water without her voice and talent helping to prop it up (shown below).

September 25, 2023 at 7:43 PM I am a voice actor who simply voices characters. I voice a character in a game developed by an individual who is being helped by multiple volunteers like myself. I have not nor will I ever condone actions that harms others (especially minors) in any capacity, so my opinion on the offending matter is irrelevant because I'm not at the heart of the issue. In terms of my voicing Yandere-Chan, I am right now in a state of mourning. I've voiced her and others in the game for almost 10 years, and my contributions to the project are almost innumerable. I walked in a volunteer, loyal only to the project's development and completion. I did not join to be a defender or arbiter of anyone's actions outside of the project. This is a serious issue, so this choice is not made lightly in any meaning of the word. I am suspending my participation as a voice actress for Yandere Simulator. I still hope the game ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● gets completed, and have consented to my work to continue being used (with an exclusion of Al, which I will never consent to).

On September 25th, YandereDev then created a blog post^[4] in which he owned up to the accountability of his actions and didn't try to explain anything away or say anything other than admitting that he messed up (shown below). This blog post sent further ripples throughout the YandereDev community, as many perceived it as an admission of guilt for all things in the video, using it as a moment to criticize him and take out a decade's worth of frustration on YandereDev.

X Yandere Simulator Develop... yanderedev.wordpress.com SIMULATOR YANDERE SIMULATOR DEVELOPMENT BLOG I'm sorry. Posted on September 25, 2023 LTE L Hi. You've probably heard some really concerning stuff over the last few days. You might have seen a video that has left you feeling worried, disappointed, and wondering what I have to say for myself. There's a part of me that wants to say, "No, you don't understand, the video was edited in an extremely dishonest and misleading way, blah blah blah..." but, no, I'm not going to focus on that. Continue reading | 74 Comments 53% 2:30 There's a part of me that wants to do what I usually do, and type out a massive essay where I over-explain absolutely every single detail about the entire situation, provide context to absolutely everything, go point-by- point down the list of every possible fact that could make the situation easier to understand. → But, no, I'm not going to do that. This isn't a blog post about how, "Actually, you see, I didn't really do anything all that bad, if you consider all the facts..." I'm just going to take accountability and own up to a really, REALLY huge f------ mistake that I've made. September 19th Bug-Fixing Build Posted on September 19, 2023

Following the quitting of Michaela and the blog post by YandereDev, other members of the team began to quit. On September 26th, content creator and YouTuber BijuuMike^[5] uploaded a video in which he talked about his reasoning for stepping down from the project and not wanting to be associated with YandereDev or the game in the future. The video, in which Bijuu also pulls up the blog post and goes through it, gained over 35,000 views in four hours (shown below).

YandereDev Addresses Allegations

On January 1st, 2024, YandereDev uploaded a video in which he addresses several of the allegations, most notably the one in which he was allegedly grooming a minor over Discord, before trying to explain his side of what happened and where it all went wrong. This video was later deleted by YandereDev but reuploaded to YouTube by the channel Aerialyn^[7] where it gained over 50,000 views in two weeks (shown below).

In the video, YandereDev dismisses some of the allegations and pieces of evidence (such as Discord screenshots) as being fake and says that his mental health deteriorating over the past decade is what led to this situation in his lack of being socially aware of how the conversations looked.

This defense and response, however, did not sit well with many of his critics, as numerous reactions were posted to YouTube by other content creators who began to pick apart his video in the following days. For example, on January 2nd, 2024, content creator and YouTuber Mutahar (aka SomeOrdinaryGamers) uploaded a video^[8] in which he briefly went over the history of YandereDev before reacting to the video and noticing that the Snapchat allegations are never addressed (shown below).