"You guys are riding the d*ck of white men": Twitch streamer HasanAbi called out for racial comment about Starfield developers

A clip of Twitch streamer "HasanAbi" Piker criticizing Bethesda Head Todd Howard while reacting to Starfield Direct from June 2023 is gaining traction online after a social media user pointed out a racial comment made by the content creator. Hasan is a well-known political streamer who recently played host to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on his stream, and he has gotten in trouble before for his controversial takes.

While watching the deep dive trailer for the much-anticipated game around two months ago, HasanAbi was calling out people in his chat who supported Todd Howard, the Bethesda chief introducing certain gameplay mechanics in that clip.

It was clear that this streamer was not very impressed with the game. Moreover, after reading an "in Todd we trust" comment from the audience, he started comparing the developer to others in the field. Hasan even named two popular Japanese game creators, saying:

"In Todd we trust? Okay damn, dude. You all f*cking ride that d*ck. I mean, I do too, but at least the d*ck I am riding is like Hideo Kojima's d*ck, you know what I mean? I r*de the best d*cks, Kojima and Miyazaki... because they've never actually led me astray."

Timestamp 54:55

HasanAbi continued his comparison between video game developers and appeared to be making a racial statement next, referring to Bethesda's prior blunders, saying:

"You guys are riding the d*ck of white men. White men that have lied to you in the past. They've lied to you, and they led you astray, and they hurt your feelings. And you're still riding it."

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"Streamer says Starfield fans cannot be supportive because he is white?": Social media reactions to HasanAbi's take on Todd Howard

A clipped part of the stream with HasanAbi's comments about Kojima and Miyazaki cut out was posted by X user KJovian. This video has garnered quite a lot of reactions since, with many calling out the streamer's point about Todd Howard. Jovian's post itself was captioned:

"THIS IS WILD Streamer says #Starfield fans can't be supportive of Todd Howard because he is WHITE!??!?! wtf!?"

While the streamer was probably talking about Bethesda's past controversies, such as the botchy release of Fallout 76 — which had been criticized for false advertisement at the time by unhappy fans — many viewers were not happy with how he had commented on race. Many described HasanAbi's take as "garbage" and an "L":

One commenter noted that his take sounded like that of a "PSfanboy":

Others defended Todd Howard and Bethesda, saying the developers have delivered some amazing games over time and that one disaster was not enough to completely disregard their talent.

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Readers might also find it interesting that HasanAbi has been banned from Twitch in the past for saying the racial slur "cr**er" on stream.