Yahtzee Croshaw: Today, I formally resigned from The Escapist and Gamurs. I don't have the rights to Zero Punctuation, but whatever happens you'll be hearing my voice again soon, in a new place.
It‘s probably important to mention that the entire video team is gone. Some of them were fired, so the rest walked. They‘re planning to go independent soon.
Edit: Their new channel will be SecondWindGroup. They'll do a livestream on November 8th at 11 AM CT, explaining their plans for the future. (Source)
Damn.
Props to everyone who quit in solidarity.
Imagine if Dropout picked them up
I love Dropout, but consolidating everything under one roof is just not a good idea. Not only are they different teams with different sensibilities, but it's an unstable industry and if the company with all the "good" content happened to fail, that'd be a disaster.
Is "fired" the right term? Normally someone being "fired" indicates that they are at fault in some way. It's not normal for people to be "fired" in bulk. It sounds more like they were laid off, like the company had to cut costs.
Well, Nick used that term and he‘s probably in a position to know if it‘s the right one.
"To be laid off", or even better "to be let go", are fucking euphemisms for "fired", "kicked out", etc.
That sort of vocabulary is typically used by HR to sound more benevolent, whereas when it's happening to you, you'll use the more aggressive terms.
According to the guys who left, Management forced unrealistic targets on the Editor in Chief, then used him not meeting those targets as an excuse to fire him. Everybody else quit in response.
Fucking hell, he's been with them for close to 20 years, basically half of his working life. He's been there through a lot of shit too, and basically kept The Escapist going through setbacks, cuts, and more.
I would have assumed he'd be largely untouchable there, so to make a decision that led him to resign immediately is absolutely wild.
To be fair, I quite liked Extra Punctuation, and I've always thought he would now be recognisable enough to either go alone, or actually be in front of a screen without animation. This could work out really well for him.
Holy shit so no more Zero Punctuation? He was like half of that channel. Wow this came from nowhere.
Zero punctuation and 3-minute reviews are the only reason to be there. Guess i'm out now.
I struggle to think what that channel even did besides ZP and EP. Is Cold Take them as well?
Well, props to Yahtz for not being a scab and quitting when Nick got fired, good solidarity there
It would be amazing if his team could somehow join the Outside Xbox, then I could get all of my British accented videogame snark in one place
RIP TotalBiscuit, he would've fit right in there
I never see OxBox called out. I don't watch much YouTube but I always watch their videos..
I don't even know what they do except post Yahtzee videos
So the escapist is closing down soon? Alright then.
I know he said he'll show up in another place (and will keep doing largely the same stuff there, presumably) but this is such an impactful end of an era for me. I've been watching ZP my whole adult life, pretty much. I can't believe his next video won't have the iconic music or animated imps. I don't know why this affects me so much but ZP has been such a constant I suppose, that it feels empty with it gone.
Still, huge props to the team for resigning in solidarity, absolutely love seeing that and I'll definitely follow whatever site they end up on next.
I remember listening to ZP in my headphones while working in a metal fabrication shop, kept me cheered up when there wasn't much reason to be.
I stopped watching a long time ago but from what I can tell dude legitimately cares about getting games journalism right, hope it goes well for him
He’s definitely one of those that speaks his mind with little filtering. You get his honest opinion, which is nice in a world of bought reviews. Sure his opinion might not match yours, but that’s not the point is it?
He’s also a pretty good author. I recommend all of his books.
This is definitely the end of an era.
For real. I've been listening to these forever.
Props for the reminder. Thank you.
This reminds me of when Jared left Wisecrack, or when literally everyone left Cracked. I felt it coming too, same pattern as many before: the ZP videos started pushing for premium subs with more ads and censoring Yahtzee, and there were more shows with Yatz and a cohost. They always start by pushing the video stars to do stuff with new (cheaper, unknown, less interesting) people because The Company thinks all people are replaceable gears.
Good for the entire video team just quiting, the writing has clearly been on the wall for a while. Maybe he can do work with Stephanie Sterling again? I used to love their team ups!
Well shit that's the Escapist dead. I was kinda wondering.
No more Escapist basically? Oh well.
Most people don't remember that The Escapist was originally a PDF games magazine. It was excellent back then. Great articles, and amazing graphic design.
Soon after it became a website, the only thing I went there for was Yahtzee Croshaw, and honestly I haven't listened to Zero Punctuation for maybe 10 years.
I'm out of the loop. Any reason given for leaving? I feel like I've watched ZP on and off since we got a family computer.
From what's been posted on the discord and a couple of articles it looks like the escapist was bought out, and new management wanted a ton of video content (perhaps to align with the youtube algorithm of prioritizing channels that post multiple videos per day). New management then fired Nick, and the video staff in solidarity (and seeing the writing on the wall of the new direction of promoting low effort, frequent content over less frequent quality content) walked out with him.
I find this kind of funny-sad: The Escapist has often gone through these waves of being The Yahtzee Croshaw Channel to "We're spinning up two other channels just so we can spread out all the stuff we're making." Remember that phase when every ZP started with a bumper about which shows are on which channel? Yeah they stopped uploading things to Escapist Movies and Escapist Live 2 years ago.
I was actually digging some of the newer stuff they were making, particularly The Stuff Of Legends and Cold Take, and doing Extra Punctuation in video form didn't hurt either. Just as I was finally like "Hey Escapist is publishing some shows in addition to ZP that I'm kinda into" it all falls apart.
Sounds like they definitely fucked up. So they just bought the channel for no reason. There will be no content now.
Well that's an unsub. Literally the only thing from them I ever watched
In any case, I look forward to whatever he's got cooked up. Hope he keeps doing stuff like extra punctuation as well
Youtube started recommending me "Cold Take", which is actually not bad. Vastly different vibe, though.
I like Cold Take, too, so now I wonder if that is also part of this mass resignation event.
I've enjoyed both shows hosted by that guy, Cold Take and Stuff Of Legends. Sebastian Ruiz, apparently. I'm hoping he's able to continue.
Congratulations to some wealthy idiots on their recent purchase of an empty box.
I've watched every single episode of zero Punctuation. Holy fuck. This is huge.
Man has consistently been putting out five minutes of good to pretty good content once a week for over fifteen years, it was an incredible run tbh
All while writing books and even narrating the audiobooks. Man didn't have time for punctuation or sleep.
Right? Essentially half my life. Just dropped out of college when he started up.
He's practically back in the Maddox.xmission.com, PurePwnage, and Newgrounds days.
I knew him from SA.
I wonder if they're gonna try getting someone else to take up ZP
Good fucking luck to the next guy. Lol
Shits going down like the Hindenburg.
Wow. That’s a heavy blow.
Lords of the fallen, fell this mighty Lord. 🥀
Been watching him for what feels like forever.
Definitely wish him and the team the best of luck moving forward and will keep an eye out for the next venture.
I stopped following The Escapist a couple months back when it started reminding me more and more of corporate media. ZP was fun because you could get Yat's unfiltered opinion, rather than the almost undiscernable "good game, 7/10" opinion other game reviewers give. The Escapist shot themselves on the foot on this one, imo.
Someone please, please back up the old Zero Punctuation videos now, before something happens.
Archive dot org has all of them, as far as I can tell.
They started the Second Wind Group channel. So videos should be posted there shortly https://www.youtube.com/@SecondWindGroup
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/@SecondWindGroup
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Right as LoadingReadyRun is getting ready for Desert Bus, so no Checkpoint for two weeks. I wonder if they will cover it when they get back 🤔