The Escapist murica-fires Editor-in-Chief - loses Yahtzee Croshaw and entire video team in hours

Fired or resigned, extremely incomplete list:

  • Nick Calandra - Editor-in-Chief
  • Yahtzee Croshaw - Zero Punctuation, Adventure is Nigh, Extra Punctuation
  • Jack Packard - Adventure is Nigh
  • Amy Campbell - Adventure is Nigh, 3 Minute Reviews
  • KC Nwosu - Adventure is Nigh, 3 Minute Reviews
  • Jesse Galena - Adventure is Nigh, 3 Minute Reviews
  • Sebastian Ruiz - Cold Take, Stuff of Legend
  • JM8 - Editor, Design Delve
  • Darren Moody - Columnist
  • Marty Sliva - 3 Minute Review

IP of Zero Punctuation belongs to Escapist, so that is dead as of now.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

Let’s all laugh at an industry

That never learns anything, tee-hee-hee!

Caligvla,
@Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Well, good luck keeping the lights on without Yahtzee, he’s been the sole reason 90% of your audience even existed in the first place.

daikiki,

It’s more like 100%. The escapist is yahtzee. Was, rather. Now it’s a logo, a url, and a back catalog.

On the bright side, the entire team has banded together to launch “Second Wind”. Their new discord is popping and there will be a livestream tomorrow detailing the team’s plan going forward

DaMonsterKnees,

Good scoop, you, thanks!

ericbomb,

Gonna be honest, since it seemed like Yahtzee was the only one who pulled in views I kind of always assumed he was like the channel owner? You know “Yahtzee’s shenanigans and he funds his friends trying to do stuff hoping something will stick”

But I’m just a super casual but long term watcher. I watch every zero punctuation, and like… yeah that’s it. Been doing that for a decade.

Wild they managed to piss off the reason people care about them.

ericbomb,

Yeah I’ve been subbed for… dearie me, ten years? Basically only for zero punctuation. I watched it when I was too poor to buy all the games I wanted and I got a kick out of him roasting games I couldn’t afford as hot trash.

lolcatnip,

That title made me feel like I was having a stroke.

twotone,

Common issue on Lemmy from what I’ve seen, stemming from a lack of harder moderation.

Reddit’s r/games may have been very heavy on the rules, but those rules insured a level of quality that the Lemmy counterparts don’t have.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

Zero punctuation and Cold Takes are both fucked now, thanks guys!

cottonmon,
@cottonmon@lemmy.world avatar

If I understand correctly, Cold Take is owned by Frost so he can take that with him if he wants to.

iforgotmyinstance,

Companies everywhere losing the fucking plot.

canis_majoris,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

I remember following the Escapist when they transitioned to YouTube, after probably longer than a decade of hosting their own stuff on their own service. I remember seeing all these shows they had spun up, but they all had exponentially less viewership than anything with Yahtzee in it. There were movie reviews which I occasionally caught and a bunch of other content that I just didn’t care for.

I tried to get into the other creators on the platform but only Yahtzee had any staying power for me. Slightly Civil War/Slightly Something Else was great too when Jack started coming in. I’ve been a fan of Jack’s since his Red Letter Media days, when he was doing Pre-Rec with Rich Evans.

Deestan,

Sebastian “Frost” Ruiz’s stuff has quickly gained loving fans. I recommend looking at his Cold Take ot Stuff of Legend stuff if you haven’t.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

I really love his 7-8 minute video essays on the gaming industry, hope he can still go do something similar.

sirfancy,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/acbe6366-e0b9-4bc2-8547-495f0e171730.png

They literally just gave Yahtzee a new segment. Actually unreal. Hope they find a new better job soon, we all know how talented they are.

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

He said he’ll still be working, I’m sure those guys are all following along

CADmonkey,

The only reason I even knew The Escapist existed is because of ZP.

diegooooooo,
@diegooooooo@lemmy.world avatar

What the hell does murica-firing means? Is it getting shot by your employer?

Alk,

Yeah this title is out there.

Deestan,

Zero notice, zero rights, immediate lockout, zero dignity. The kind of firing that breaks at least 8 laws in most European countries.

Railcar8095,

Ironically, no more Zero Punctuation!

diegooooooo,
@diegooooooo@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks for the explanation, sounds really scummy.

UnspecificGravity,

Sadly, it is actually pretty normal in the US, hence the name.

Railcar8095,

Ironically, no more Zero Punctuation!

dynamojoe,

brb adding the escapist to the blocklist

caut_R, (edited )

I really liked Jack as a DM. I hope he‘ll do a DnD podcast; his improv skills, voice acting, and open-mindedness to his players’ „bullshittery“ really would make for an exceptionally enjoyable podcast. And Yahtzee‘s humor also helped. The animations were great, but I don‘t think a voice only podcast would hurt and easens the production burden. I wonder how hard they could just pick up where they left off with AIN without infringing on IPs.

Gamoc,

The things you mentioned make Adventure is Nigh the best DND campaign play thing I’ve found so far, it’s excellent.

caut_R,

The only other DnD podcast I enjoy to the same degree is „Not Another DnD Podcast,“ you just have to survive the first 10-ish minutes of the very first episode which are kind of weird and then it‘s an incredible ride

Gamoc,

Just subscribed to that. I’ve enjoyed Dungeons and Daddies, the title of which requires an explanation to be included: it’s about four dad’s finding their sons after they’re sucked into the forgotten realms through a portal. Sword AF is pretty good too. On YouTube.

rustyfish,
@rustyfish@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah but why?

Deestan, (edited )

He refused to sign an NDA, so he explains briefly in the Twitter thread, and we’ll probably hear more later.

In short: Sudden firing (as in, locked out of Slack and email while at work while being informed of being fired) for not “meeting goals”, where goals were not clearly defined.

rustyfish,
@rustyfish@lemmy.world avatar

Well that’s just fucking scummy.

Gigan,
@Gigan@lemmy.world avatar

Do we know what the NDA was about?

Deestan,

Looks like standard corporate damage control NDA where you are not allowed to discuss the reason or terms of your firing. Usually illegally demanded to get severance pay.

ipkpjersi,

I was laid off earlier this year and was locked out of my Google account and Slack and everything else company related immediately after my meeting with HR and my manager ended. It was shocking how quick they were about it.

I kind of wonder if Google Workspace has a “Fire Employee” button for administrators. I think it probably does.

Uglyhead, (edited )
@Uglyhead@lemmy.world avatar

Gamurs bought a bunch of websites and have been fumbling the bag on all of them. RIP Escapist, and soon others.

Seemingly started to go downhill this year with Silicon Valley Bank fiasco

TCGM,
@TCGM@lemmy.world avatar

With a loss of people like that, The Escapist is dead too.

The pro gamer move would be to pick up the Zero Punctuation rights at auction.

cottonmon,
@cottonmon@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, Yahtzee and ZP was what kept The Escapist alive (Pretty sure there was a point where ZP was their only content). Cold Take was the other thing that was interesting and they lost that too. I don’t think they have any other content without those guys.

canis_majoris,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

They always had alternate content, it just generally sucked.

BenVimes, (edited )

I mean, it should have died years ago the last time they unceremoniously dumped talent over apparently ideological reasons, but they survived.

Granted, this time is different because now they are losing their primary breadwinner. They plodded along before because ZP still brought in people. This wound may actually be fatal.

FerolisD,
@FerolisD@lemmy.world avatar

Seriously what were they thinking? I’m literally only subscribed to their YT channel for Yahtzee stuff. Everyone who bought a membership is gonna cancel now.

Radicaldog,

They probably had no idea Yahtzee and co were that loyal to Nick. That said, I’m shocked Yahtzee was never given an ownership stake, as an insurance against… Well, this exact scenario.

ericbomb,

I kind of assumed he was like… mostly owner?

Like I sorted their YT videos by popular and after four pages I gave up looking for something that isn’t zero punctuation.

beebarfbadger,

It’s the dairy farmer selling his only milk cow for all that sweet, sweet cow-selling cash, failing to see that this may potentially have an adverse effect on his milk-selling cash henceforth.

Dasnap,
@Dasnap@lemmy.world avatar

Looks like Yatzee is losing access to the Zero Punctuation IP, so he’ll have to move to a different brand. Must be a bloody difficult move after being with ZP for almost 20 years.

Shalakushka,
@Shalakushka@kbin.social avatar

"IP" feels like such a weird term here. It's not that I disagree, it's just weird to think about. Oh no, he will have to be mad at games with an English accent to slightly different clipart. He may have to find a new nu metal riff for his intro.

Dasnap,
@Dasnap@lemmy.world avatar

It was a recognisable brand, so he’ll definitely lose viewers in the transition who simply don’t know the two series are related. The Yatzee character was Yatzee to most people, so he’s almost having to give up his face. It’s not like Conan O’Brian moving to a new show where everyone already knows who he is and what he looks like.

captain_aggravated,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

I think most of the format are Yahtzee’s IP, because he made two episodes released on his own channel independently under the name “Fully Ramblomatic” before being picked up by The Escapist maintaining pretty much an identical formula under the Zero Punctuation name. I think there would be a case that the little black imp thing is his for the same reason.

Pons_Aelius,

Holy shit. No more Zero Punctuation?

That sucks balls.

Tyfud,

They said they’re looking to go independent and would update soon

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