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.
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I don’t like ZP but EP is quite good imo.
I haven’t browsed in years but do I understand correct that Yahtzee does both shows? Is the “actual” punctuation literally him talking slower with pauses and such?
Extra Punctuation was the slower, slightly longer format videos that were more musing about broad industry trends and gaming history. It was great.
Wow, I wish I’d stuck around for those over the years. Thanks.
EP is him doing the same thing, but not as reviews, more generally discussing broad topics regarding games and the industry. I personally prefer it to ZP
Holy shit so no more Zero Punctuation? He was like half of that channel. Wow this came from nowhere.
Theyre practically nothing without him.
No one would have heard of them if it weren’t for ZP
By the sounds of it their entire video team left. So not half of the channel gone, but all of it…
Woah. I wonder what happened 😬
Going to go out on a limb and say unrestrained corporate greed
Considering everything else that has gone to shit recently for the same reason, you’re probably right.
They apparently fired the EIC for dumb reasons, and everybody else left in solidarity.
In my mind Escapist as a brand itself is basically only ZP, do they even do anything else?
They used to, before Extra Credits, Critical Role, and MovieBob went independent.
And The Jimquisition if you reach back far enough.
Sterling and Yahtzee did a few literal road trips together even.
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…
So the escapist is closing down soon? Alright then.
I don’t even know what they do except post Yahtzee videos
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.
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!
Props for the reminder. Thank you.
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.
They announced they’re staying together as Second Wind Group, so hopefully the momentum just goes there instead
Title noted.
cold take was the only other thing I gave a shit about on escapist. looking forward to what they all come up with next.
Sounds like they definitely fucked up. So they just bought the channel for no reason. There will be no content now.
Well shit that’s the Escapist dead. I was kinda wondering.
No more Escapist basically? Oh well.
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.
It sounds like the entire video team left in solidarity, so I’m pretty certain Frost is gone. The parent company probably retains the “Cold Take” branding, but it’ll be somebody else if they keep it running. And it’ll be awful.
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.
