Zero Punctuation is Dead - Yahtzee quits the Escapist along with the rest of the staff

[Ebonsword]

The Escapist's parent company fired the editor in chief of the Escapist today, along with Jack Packard (from Red Letter Media).

Yahtzee and, apparently, the rest of the team quit in solidarity.

The company owns Zero Punctuation, so it looks like the series that has survived so much is officially dead.



Here's the video where they announce their future plans (for the two other people at the Kodex who care).

 

[Axel_am]

I didn't even know he was still doing ZP videos. Good for him. I'm sure he will find a new place and maybe a new format really soon. He is so well known at this point that it would be a surprise if that's not the case.

Maan, The Escapist... Talk about a blast from the past.

 

[Ebonsword]

I didn't even know he was still doing ZP videos. Good for him. I'm sure he will find a new place and maybe a new format really soon. He is so well known at this point that it would be a surprise if that's not the case.

Maan, The Escapist... Talk about a blast from the past.

The Escapist really had a renaissance when Nick Calandra became EiC back in 2019. Lots of new talent doing entertaining stuff (probably too left wing for most of the Codex, though).

Which is why it makes so little sense that they fired him.

 

[Alex]

I didn't even know he was still doing ZP videos. Good for him. I'm sure he will find a new place and maybe a new format really soon. He is so well known at this point that it would be a surprise if that's not the case.

Maan, The Escapist... Talk about a blast from the past.

I had no idea either still existed. I really think Yahtzee should have stuck with AGS games to be honest. He just shouldn't have tried to make a ghost story into a plot about the destruction of the whole planet.

 

[Rieser]

Way to torpedo your own company.

 

[Fedora Master]

Fuck them. They didn't have anything apart from Yahtzee so they're dead now.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Drama... drama everywhere!

 

[Sukhāvatī]

I enjoyed his Extra Punctuation videos more than Zero Punctuation, where he goes more in depth about his thoughts on specific matters, like his comparison of the puzzles in nu Monkey Island versus the classic.

 

[Ezekiel]

Glad I quit that forum. They banned so many people and the majority of the few left have sticks up their butts. Soon the site and forum will close.

 

[Beastro]

I didn't even know he was still doing ZP videos. Good for him. I'm sure he will find a new place and maybe a new format really soon. He is so well known at this point that it would be a surprise if that's not the case.

Maan, The Escapist... Talk about a blast from the past.

I had no idea either still existed. I really think Yahtzee should have stuck with AGS games to be honest. He just shouldn't have tried to make a ghost story into a plot about the destruction of the whole planet.

He was at his best let's playing adventure games and talking shit with his Aussie friend before he moved to the US.

 

[Don Peste]

I was there 3000 years ago.

 

[Maxie]

wow croshaw will stop promoting his utterly odious taste in entertainment

 

[Tacgnol]

I didn't even know he was still doing ZP videos. Good for him. I'm sure he will find a new place and maybe a new format really soon. He is so well known at this point that it would be a surprise if that's not the case.

Maan, The Escapist... Talk about a blast from the past.

I had no idea either still existed. I really think Yahtzee should have stuck with AGS games to be honest. He just shouldn't have tried to make a ghost story into a plot about the destruction of the whole planet.

He was at his best let's playing adventure games and talking shit with his Aussie friend before he moved to the US.

Yahtzee also used to challenge his friend's ultra-SJW views on a fairly frequent basis during those videos. I've no idea what he believes these days considering he moved to San Francisco.

 

[Maxie]

I didn't even know he was still doing ZP videos. Good for him. I'm sure he will find a new place and maybe a new format really soon. He is so well known at this point that it would be a surprise if that's not the case.

Maan, The Escapist... Talk about a blast from the past.

I had no idea either still existed. I really think Yahtzee should have stuck with AGS games to be honest. He just shouldn't have tried to make a ghost story into a plot about the destruction of the whole planet.

He was at his best let's playing adventure games and talking shit with his Aussie friend before he moved to the US.

Yahtzee also used to challenge his friend's ultra-SJW views on a fairly frequent basis during those videos. I've no idea what he believes these days considering he moved to San Francisco.

matters nothing. marring the image of the thrice blessed adventure game genre with identity shit, he should've been shot that instant

 

[Multidirectional]

I enjoyed his Extra Punctuation videos more than Zero Punctuation

Yeah I got recommended this rant of his by youtube recently and ended up enjoying it:

 

[lightbane]

Everything of the early 00s that was vaguely interesting is dying, corrupted or dead, damn it.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Once again DSP survives like a cockroach dancing on their rotten, dusted remains

 

[Infinitron]

Has Yahtzee ever explained why he stayed there so long and didn't start his own channel under a different name?

 

[Skinwalker]

His last ZP was Lords of the Fallen? Didn't even make it to Alan Wake 2.

Daily reminder that Yatzhee kind of enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition, and his chief complaint about it was "muh religious fanatics" and bad hair. RIP in piss, faggot.

The Escapist's parent company fired the editor in chief of the Escapist today, along with Jack Packard (from Red Letter Media).

Who is the parent company, and wtf was Aids Moby doing at the Escapist?

 

[Tyranicon]

Does this really matter to Yahtzee?

After all these years he should already be independently wealthy and if he wants to start his own youtube channel or stream/whatever, he has the support to do so.

Zero Punctuation by itself is useless. It's like owning the fucking pewdiepie name.

 

[Ebonsword]

Has Yahtzee ever explained why he stayed there so long and didn't start his own channel under a different name?

Well, the parent company owned the Zero Punctuation IP and I think he's said in the past that it was a consistent and reliable paycheck for him. Even in the darkest days when The Escapist was literally just him, he was still making a decent living off of it (I believe).

I think him leaving now is a combination of him getting increasingly fed up with stuff like YouTube censorship along with him really bonding with some of his new teammates. I know the second part is hard to believe, but there is a lot of camaraderie in streams like this one:

 

[Lemming42]

I used to have incredibly strong negative opinions about this guy back in about 2008 or 2009. I can't remember why, but I do remember getting into a physical fight with my friend over it.

Shocked to hear he still exists, honestly.

 

[Ebonsword]

Who is the parent company, and wtf was Aids Moby doing at the Escapist?

Parent company is Gamurs Group. They bought the Escapist earlier this year.

https://gamurs.group/

Jack has been at the Escapist since 2020. He did a lot of different streams for a while, but lately has mostly been working on Adventure is Nigh, which is their version of Critical Role. I'm not the biggest fan, but it seems to have been a pretty big money maker for the site (which, again, is why firing Jack seems bizarre).

 

[Ebonsword]

Wow, it's now a story on Forbes' website.

Forbes Article on the Escapist

Zero Punctuation Ends As ‘The Escapist’ Faces Mass Resignations After EIC Firing​

When people ask me how to get into games journalism these days, my main piece of advice is “don’t.” I’m really not kidding, as while I am privileged to be where I am, it’s an almost impossible path to walk given the state of the industry and the instability found within.

Case in point, a wild scene unfolded last night as long-time gaming site The Escapist fired some of its team members, including EIC Nick Calandra, for reportedly not meeting goals set by its parent company Gamurs.

After Calandra was fired, Escapist staff members, contributors and producers all took to Twitter to announce they were also leaving the site, with many of them indicating they would be working on some new project with Calandra directly.

The departures and firings essentially cleaned out the entirety of The Escapist’s video department, including most significantly at all, the departure of Yahtzee Croshaw, the voice of Zero Punctuation, one of the oldest and most famous game criticism video series, and one I grew up watching long before I started doing this for a living. Croshaw resigned, but he does not own the rights to Zero Punctuation itself, so whatever he does next, it will be without that branding. Though it’s obvious the branding can’t survive without him, even if The Escapist retains it.

By all accounts Calandra was a great EIC, and clearly inspired a lot of loyalty in those working for him, given the events of last night. Gamurs feels like yet another company trying to squeeze blood from a stone with likely unreasonable growth targets in an industry where large increases are more or less impossible. Their video section pivoted from native video to mostly YouTube, which can gain more views but produce less revenue, but clearly the entire endeavor ended up backfiring, and now The Escapist does not have a video department at all, it seems.

As of this morning, The Escapist is still publishing new articles, as the site hasn’t lost all its writers or contributors. It remains unclear what level of staff or freelancers remain at the company, and what plans may be to rehire for a new video section. But it’s safe to say that without the old team or an icon like Yahtzee, it might just be over altogether.

As for Calandra and his new project, that’s certainly the more interesting endeavor, as that team has a lot of fans and hopefully they can put something together that works for them and their audience without dealing with corporate neck-breathing. More on that as details emerge.

 

[rubinstein]

50-something yo CEOs and directors of finance opening forbes today will be like "bloody hell, first the chinese real estate crisis and now this?!?! Christ, its a tragedy after tragedy!"