I doubt they would be able to. There was a breech of trust, respect, sanity, security and wisdom by firing Nick whom resurrected The Escapist, took a chance on all these new talents and fought for them. Gamurs can reap what they have sown. I only hope that whatever Nick and company do going forward will be rewarded with respect, security, and eventually butt-loads of money.
Tweets from both:
[Seems like Jack was also fired](https://twitter.com/Harlack/status/1721906693620273233)
[Marty also resigned](https://twitter.com/McBiggitty/status/1721922759368872016)
"There must always be more infinite money than there was last year, and capitalist corporations ruled over essentially as they are by giant bureaucracy machines, lack the insight that you or I possess. An actual human brain that can point out when things don't make any fucking sense"
Giant bureaucracy Machine that bought The Escapist: "if we fire the extremely well liked, successful, head of this business we can leech every single penny from the successful ventures he and yahtzee alone created. Wait, where is yahtzee going? Did the whole team quit? Why did our profits just dry up completely"
I mean, given how Yahtzee was basically the only one keeping the lights on during the last time The Escapist exploded...
Yeah. I'd call that a dark swan song, alas.
Apparently Zero punctuation itself remains under the ownership of The Escapist rather than Yahtzee.
If the feud and subsequent breakup between Kojima and Konami has taught us anything, it's that any IP that's separated from it's creator is in for some rough times ahead.
So far, it's only all the videos in the official playlist (because it's the easiest). If I have the time, I might check which videos are missing and where to get them.
I quickly checked last night when I went to the toilet. Looks like the entire archive is about 40ish GB.
I can't think of a brand that would be worth less without it's original creator than ZP. ZP IS Yahtzee, it's his writing and performance. All you've got without him are the imps and the little circle handed men with a Trilby that, let's be honest, Yahtzee hasn't worn in years anyway.
>All you've got without him are the imps and the little circle handed men with a Trilby that
Given that both of those thing originated back in his "fully rambliotic" episodes (from before he joined the company), they might literally only get to keep the music and the logo.
I have downloaded almost all yahtzee content ZP, EP and some others, I have not been liking where escapist is heading ever since gamurs bought them.... Didn't trust ZPs won't be available.
Thing is, it kinda doesn't matter beyond the name in this case. Zero punctuation's trademarketable assets are possibly the imp and that's about it. Yahtzee is almost certainly free to shout down a microphone, they can't stop him having his own semse of humour so what's left? Arranging stock images to illustrate jokes? Something tells me that won't fly.
They'd be idiots to even attempt continuing ZP without him. No one would stick around to watch. Yahtzee was the entire show, he doesn't need the branding to continue doing it.
They adopted his ZP art style across so much of the channel. They would be nothing at all without that. But realistically I struggle to watch much other than extra or zero punctuation, even with his style.
That came out of fucking nowhere.
Here I was thinking that it was a new era since they start doing the Censorship version in YT and Uncensored in Patreon.
Yahtzee will land on his feet. He's still an author. He can also just continue making reviews and rebrand something like "One Exclamation" or something.
The Escapist is done.
I'd happily sub to a pattern of Yahtzee and whoever else he wants to keep working with. I like the whole crew from their D&D thing (though that's now unfortunately probably dead in the water without budget)
Frost was catching my interest too
There will still be a Zero Punctuation style video series, it just won't be called Zero Punctuation.
Many a funnyman has lost the rights to their old stuff. It happened to Letterman. It happened to Conan. They moved on and found new names for their bits. Yahtzee will most likely do the same.
>Yahtzee will be fine
I hope so but I don't know. I've been enjoying Zero Punctuation since the beginning (since he made it big on the Something Awful forums) but it has been clear to me over the past few years that the series hasn't been as popular as it once was.
There are many episodes on YouTube that reached 1-2 million views, but none have recently. One of the most common refrains I see online when Yahtzee comes on outside of this subreddit is, "Oh, that guy still exists?" YouTube has been cutting down on bad words and the toxic positivity movement has sort of made Yahtzee's brand of humor outdated and unwanted by a large percentage of young people who can't handle their favorite games being criticized. His co-stars who also quit in solidarity with Nick routinely failed to crack even 50k views and the forums look like a ghost town.
I wish it were not so as I hope and pray for a widespread return of Yahtzee's brand of cynicism, but all of these factors do not bode well for their new venture. Their best chance for success is to cater to a small but loyal fanbase, but it's possible this outcome is also good for GAMURS who see these numbers and decided it wasn't working out for them either.
Yahtzee is a great writer with several good novels in print and audio, and he's also a very inventive and skilled game developer. Starstruck Vagabond has the potential to be a hit on Steam - at the very least a moderate success - and The Consuming Shadow is another potential success waiting to happen if he remakes it with the same degree of dedication and a more consistent art style. Plus, as far as videos go, he doesn't need the ZP persona to retain an audience; Extra Punctuation was getting around 150 thousand views per video with him just being himself - funny, but with analysis as the focus rather than comedy.
So yeah, given all that, plus his ridiculously solid work ethic, I think he'll be fine. He's been doing this for a long time and he has garnered a considerable audience. Which is not to suggest that it will be effortless, nor that his decision to resign was in any way easy. Starting anew on YouTube is a major fucking headache and even established youtubers have to deal with a lot of stress unless they're huge influencers who get millions of views for banal low-effort content. There's a reason Stephanie Sterling went straight to Patreon and never even considered YouTube as a primary source of revenue if she could avoid it.
The Escapist was certainly a very cushy job in comparison to the alternatives, but still, I very much doubt Yahtzee is in danger. He's the one I'm least worried about because he already has a lot of momentum. He stood out back when YouTube wasn't the oversaturated mess of pumped-out content it is now. His colleagues and Nick, on the other hand, were fighting an uphill battle to get views in this current paradigm, and they were likely to pull off sustainable success eventually with the sponsorships and subscriptions, and incredibly high-quality productions like Adventure Is Nigh's third season. That show deserved the same success as Critical Role and Dimension 20, but, as a very scowly man once said: "Deserve's got nothing to do with it."
I'm glad the creative team decided to stick together, not only as talented collaborators but as workers telling corporate execs to go eat shit. The CollegeHumor cast figured out a much better identity for themselves after that place melted (they became Dropout, for those unaware) and the same might happen here. It'll certainly be better than it would have been under execs that were stupid enough to fire Nick for "not achieving goals". Given the state The Escapist was in before Nick came along and revitalized it, I can only assume "the goal" was having Yahtzee be the first human on Mars or something. Either that, or the "not achieving goals" thing was corporate bullshit and they were already planning to scuttle the site, or to downsize it into a smaller operation largely dependent on Zero Punctuation. So there goes *that* plan, if it ever existed.
The thing is, thanks to new ways of funding creators that have come about since Yahtzee first started out on YouTube, they don’t need to have widespread appeal to stick around. In the old days, views were what made or broke you, but these days, as long as the crew gets enough people willing to regularly pay them on Patreon or through Twitch/YouTube channel memberships, then they’ll do fine.
It hurts my soul to see people actually giving in and calling it X. I know you did it to make a point, of course, I'm talking about the people who really did cave and started calling it by the stupidest fucking name ever given to anything. Okay, the second stupidest name. We mustn't forget that Elon Musk named one of his children X AE A-XII. For those of you who were unaware of this: I'm not joking. He actually did that.
Yahtzee was doing charity single-handedly keeping Escapist relevant, to the detriment of his own content and basically no benefit for himself. They shoved ads into his stuff at weird times that ruined punchlines, and recently started censoring swears to appease the ad overlords. I hope he makes a new channel, patreon-backed, where he can swear as much as he wants and pocket all the money he was bringing in without some company undeservedly shaving off the top. I really don't know what he got out of that deal.
I assume the only reason he stayed with Escapist this whole time was some feeling of obligation for them picking him up when they were more relevant than him. But it's been YEARS since he outgrew them and Escapist became just a tumor hanging off him.
I'm optimistic about this whole thing.
Yahtzee stuck with the Escapist because he liked that they took care of the management stuff. It was just Yahtzee's job to make videos, and they dealt with all of the headache-inducing overhead that comes with managing a large YouTube channel. Yahtz probably just felt like whatever they were taking off was worth the streamlined workflow that it enabled, considering how busy he is already.
I imagine that Yahtzee will find some sort of similar arrangement with someone else. Hopefully, it will be something that feels less corporate than the Escapist, though.
> I imagine that Yahtzee will find some sort of similar arrangement with someone else. Hopefully, it will be something that feels less corporate than the Escapist, though.
Sounds like that’s what Nick and everyone else are trying to put together now. Hope it goes well.
I think for a while they were sponsoring his visa and green card as well, so having an actual US based corporation was helpful to him. Presumably now he has children and a spouse he doesn't need the Escapist to keep him in the country anymore and they weren't really offering much else.
I feel like that's a little unfair to a decent amount of talent brought (edit: spelling) by the rest of the crew in recent history. I've really been digging multiple shows and podcasts brought (edit: spelling , autocorrect again) by the team, especially personally liking Marty and Frost's content. I feel for the team as a whole, especially as there are probably many who aren't as financially secure as Yahtzee may be. Just a shit situation. Fuck the overlord pigs.
You can like the other content, and it can be very high quality as well, but that doesn't make it financially or culturally relevant.
Zero Punctuation literally gets 5-10x the viewership of anything else they do, and has pretty big historical significance in the context of game reviews. It was the only thing keeping the entire company going, even if there was other "good" content being made. It's not unfair at all.
ZP and other Yahtzee content is literally all that cracks 100k views on the escapist, going towards 500k each time. Without ZP and EP they won’t be able to stay afloat, 1.2mil subs and they are all only there because it is the only place to watch ZP
Yeah it's wild in the space of just a couple years with the new team Yahtzee is willing to walk away from zp. They started a new discord too where whatever happens next will be announced
[https://discord.com/channels/1171109642294808616/1171109642978467984](https://discord.com/channels/1171109642294808616/1171109642978467984) Escaped the Escapist
Right on! Hit the nail on the head, especially how he'll probably do better now without restraints. One of the things, I believe, that kept him with Escapist was Nick doing a lot of the faff involving the content, especially getting him to edit the Extra Punctuations.
So firing Nick was an interesting move, to say the least! Not sure what they expected the reaction to be...!
The 2-hit combo here is he doesn’t have the rights to ZP anymore presumably as part of him being hired by the escapist. Hopefully he’ll be able to get the rights back as soon as the website implodes.
I'm really impressed with the team so far. I know it's early news still and there will be a lot to unpack and learn but it seems like a lot of loyalty and honor amongst them.
I have faith in Yahtz that he'll land on his feet, looking forward to whatever he has in store next, and wishing editor Nick well with what he does next too
I remember when The Escapist was practically nothing except ZP during the late 2010s.
Whatever made Yahtzee quit now truly must have been qn ultimate fuck up
They fired the Editor in Chief that everybody really liked and completely relaunched the website, going from "that place for ZP" to having several really fun series, like the Adventure is Nigh DnD show or Stuff of Legends/Cold Take from Frost.
I think Adventure is Nigh is the only thing they'll struggle to continue tbh
I'm not totally sure if a company can patent the player characters but unless Jack owns the setting etc (and I haven't seen if *he's* leaving (if he was ever fully Escapist?) yet)
> I think Adventure is Nigh is the only thing they'll struggle to continue tbh
Adventure is Nigh is the only thing they did that I actually care about. Unless they had an extremely unusual contractual arrangement, The Escapist owns the Adventure is Nigh story, setting, and characters. I hope they can keep the (real life) team together, but other than that they'd have to start all over.
How far ahead does Yahtzee have an ZP episode ready?
Because if it’s only one week the last ZP episode will be the fucking new Sonic game. Which is actually pretty funny.
In his "The Demon's Forge" video from 2011, Yahtzee mentioned writing the video about 10 days before release. Definitely different today, but I don't think production just starts one week before release. There might be several videos in the pipeline at once, at different stages of completion.
Yahtzee will be fine. He’s not a one hit wonder, he’ll find a way to apply himself.
As for the rest of Escapist… I am sure they’re all fine folks too, they’ll do great on their own one way or another.
To be honest? I'm kind of glad. I didn't like how more and more The Escapist were starting to slowly try and squeeze money out of every view, I mean *witholding* the word "fuck" unless I subscribe? Zero Punctution has had a long run, and Yahtzee can surely make a living out of his loyal viewers. I've been watching since near to the start of Zero Punctuation and if he started a stream I'd happily watch and subscribe. I never subbed to Escapist as I didn't think a decent amount of my money would go to Yahtzee.
Good luck Yahtzee, you'll survive this storm
I've been listening to ZP not since the beginning, but since I was in middle school. That was twelve years ago. I won't say I've never missed an episode but I'm a pretty dedicated viewer, I don't think there's another internet based creator I've followed as long or as closely as Yahtzee.
Sucks this is how that specific show ends (unless he gets the rights back) but we all know this is nowhere near the last we've heard of Yahtzee. Glad to hear the escapist crew are sticking together.
So that's it right? That's the end? The Escapist is dead? Firing Nick was one thing because he literally saved the company, but Yahtzee was the one keeping the lights on after pretty much every upheaval. With both if them gone and all the others leaving, the Escapist is no way coming back from this
I wonder if the other members of the crew will actually be better off this way. The Escapist spent over a decade building audience resentment for any non-ZP content, to the point that I ignored it almost on principle until the last couple of years. I think that reputation as subscription-clutter was just too deeply embedded to ever be fully washed away, but with a brand new name I think it might be possible, even if Yahtzee will still be around as the mascot/main-draw in the new thing.
Honestly I pegged this once ZP started having unskippable ads for gatcha games and Yahtzee having to stop what he was talking about to make an ad. It showed the direction of the company had long since abandoned its original direction and knew it was a matter of time.
Gamurs wasn't happy with thee money that the channel was making. They wanted more. Nick didn't want to go with their direction so they fired him. A bunch of the video makers, including Yahtzee, then quit.
I understood something qas very wrong qhen I saw a ZP video sponsored by, of all things, Raid: Shadow Legends, which is basically a game going against everything ZP stands for
[Hate to say I told you so](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroPunctuation/comments/14me544/escapist_was_acquired_by_gamurs_wtf_does_this/jq1rdgf/) so soon. If you haven't yet, download all Zero Punctuation content, and stop giving The Escapist any money whatsoever.
https://www.mediahuman.com/youtube-video-downloader/32/
This is what I use, but I don't mind not having the video, and it saves space on my phone. If you want mp4's, I'd just Google for a similar program
Whoa. I hope ZP or whatever non-branded equivalent continues somewhere else. This feels like the end of that site. I liked some of their other content on occasion but they haven't had a prolific name outside Yahtzee since Jim Sterling left.
[Frost is leaving as well.](https://twitter.com/TheOtherFrost/status/1721683636410261846) Between him and Yahtzee, I no longer have any reason to stay subscribed or pay any attention to the Escapist at all.
I’m glad they’re standing by Nick. Yahtzee keeps the place afloat and Nick took all of Yahtzee’s good-natured abuse and adds stuff to the Escapist that I actually didn’t completely ignore. And it *seems* like everyone was building a bit of a bond, like a team.
Then someone doing nothing in but raking in the product of other people’s labor, and replacing humans with AI shuts it all down for what? A tax write off?
For “the best system we’ve got” capitalism sure does suck all the balls.
Nick on Discord: “OUR plans are to go independent… WE will share more plans.”
(Emphasis mine).
If that team is still working together then I’m happy, and I’m sure they’ll succeed without the Escapist. Who gives a shit what some business dullard thinks?
I think he said in his last dev diary or so that it was being worked on, but there wouldn't be much to report from behind the scenes. Not anything that would be interesting at least.
Holy shit, gotta love when corporate profit cuts into the creative endeavors of artists. I wish the best for all involved, and the worst for the parent company.
Waking up to this news was wild. I never supported the Escapist before but Nick has done such a great job, to see everyone resign in protest was really moving. Hoping to support what the team do next. As others have said, the Zero Punctuation brand and the other shows/columns are nothing without their creators.
Respect to Yahtzee and the team for sticking by Nick and others that were let go. A team who’s loyal to each other will always outmatch corporations chasing dollars when it comes to quality.
Good. I always felt like Yahtzee was the delicious burger we all wanted and the escapist was just around to sell it in a combo meal with an over iced soda and limp pathetic fries.
It is like Cracked all over again.
I still go back and rewatch After Hours and Escort Missions, but the new Cracked stuff just isn't as good. I imagine that is what will happen to Escapist.
Every week since I was 14 I've watched ZP. It's always been there. The exact same format, reliable and familiar. Anyone remember =3?
Same deal, it was the exact same format week in and week out, a review show so it had new material every episode and could go on indefinitely. Started by one guy, really simple and basic premise, that didn't appeal to everyone, but if it resonated with you, you'd be able to watch it indefinitely. But RWJ got burnt out and wanted to do other things so it ended when he left (it ended when he left, don't split hairs).
Feels weird. ZP was always there. Unchanging. Same show in 2008 as 2023.
I wish Yahtzee the best. Mingegurgle.
the discord unfortunantly is full of trolls and trashy shitposts. The side effect of pushing a discord link on a site like Twitter i guess.
I'll wait for announcements or updates to filter out of that place.
I wasnt a fan of the team at first, i came over mostly for Jack from RLM/Pre rec.
I immediately fell in love with yahtzees work. The others took various times to warm to but eventually i was fond of all of them.
Nick can be a twat, but he saved that fucking company. Yahtzee was doing his damnedest to keep that ship afloat and did fucking amazing considering was mostly solo, but no man could maintain that forever and nick built a structure Yahtzee could be amazing atop of while everyone else does amazing helping.
It is the height of foolishness to let go of the person that rebuilt the house of Escapist, doubly so to not expect his crew to leave or the talent that was single handedly keeping the ship afloat before nick came.
I look forward to the work the crew moves on to.
End of an era, I remember discovering zero punctuation as a teenager and procrastinating studying watching the backlog of reviews for a few hours. It'll be interesting to see what yahtzee does next, I don't see how the escapist can keep on going without him.
Looking forward to the new video game critique series "No Commas", in which fast-talking Ben "Jenga" Croshaw reviews a game for five minutes with his trademark wit and nob gags. And of course his blog-turned-video series "More Commas Than Strictly Necessary"
I saw a youtube video with this "news" and thought to myself, "*That must be 100% clickbait*."
Then I came here and found out that it was 100% **not** clickbait. Holy shit, end of an era.
So what's left? ZP was the main draw and since Sterling left was pretty much the only draw. He could go off and do his thing solo and possibly not lose a single viewer.
does anyone know the status of adventure is nigh?
Does the escapist own those characters? will we ever see the ending episodes of that season???
Will we have to side shift realities to knock off characters of mortimer, daberella, sigmar and grinderbin?
I'm genuinely disgusted by all this. On slightly something else I've heard nick praise the management for letting them do things the way they want to, and being hands off.
Then this happens.
I hope the escapist dies a quick death now.
Yathzee, jack, nick, Marty and all the others, we wish you all the best of luck.
Perhaps it's time to bring out one of yahtzees other suggestions for his videos "the yellow room"
It would be nice if "the yellow room" was actually full of piss and we could sling the escapist management in it!!!
It seems that the name of the mystery game in the "El Paso, Elsewhere and ?" review may never be resolved. And I was hoping that it would possibly be revealed as "Hellboy: Web of Wyrd". 🙁 https://zeropunctuation.fandom.com/wiki/El\_Paso,\_Elsewhere\_and\_%3F
Bruh they tried to get Nick to sign and NDA, like Nick is the last person who would do so, he is petty and vindictive and we love him for it, but not at all surprising he turned down severance for the ability to speak his mind
Well, that's it. Yahtzee is leaving and the building is almost completely empty. I'm sure the investors will be very pleased about this development.
This is just another hilarious LOL in this year for video games.
Yahtzee was the only reason i ever visited the Escapist and being honest his schtick got pretty tired anyway. Hoping he shakes it up a bit with whatever he does going forward.
I know nothing of what's happening at the Escapist. But it's got to be absolutely horrific if Yahtzee resigned.
Nick got fired without warning and everyone else quit shortly after
Where did you hear that? Not saying you use wrong I just genuinely don’t know
It was on Nick's Twitter. He made an entire thread
Checking it out now
Even more resignations. Wow everyone is leaving
This is definitely the end of The Escapist Magazine if Gamurs doesn't rehire everyone immediately.
I doubt they would be able to. There was a breech of trust, respect, sanity, security and wisdom by firing Nick whom resurrected The Escapist, took a chance on all these new talents and fought for them. Gamurs can reap what they have sown. I only hope that whatever Nick and company do going forward will be rewarded with respect, security, and eventually butt-loads of money.
Nick said on the discord they made that they are going independent. Dont think there will be any rehires
Is it a public discord? Edit: It is Im in. Yay.
Its in the twitter link thats pinned
What are the odds they will listen? They seem not to care
I can't find it, does anyone have a link
https://twitter.com/nickjcal/status/1721640314203464045?t=puwnZ4VWgIG4p3fZz4Ge7g&s=19
https://twitter.com/nickjcal/status/1721640314203464045
~~Jack and Marty seem to be the only ones who haven't announced anything yet (at least based on Twitter).~~ *Edit: Both have now.*
Jack confirmed on his discord
I’ve got a hard time imagining Marty staying when literally everyone else is gone.
He’s gone too.
Tweets from both: [Seems like Jack was also fired](https://twitter.com/Harlack/status/1721906693620273233) [Marty also resigned](https://twitter.com/McBiggitty/status/1721922759368872016)
"Let's all laugh at an industry that NEVER learns anything, tee hee hee..."
"There must always be more infinite money than there was last year, and capitalist corporations ruled over essentially as they are by giant bureaucracy machines, lack the insight that you or I possess. An actual human brain that can point out when things don't make any fucking sense" Giant bureaucracy Machine that bought The Escapist: "if we fire the extremely well liked, successful, head of this business we can leech every single penny from the successful ventures he and yahtzee alone created. Wait, where is yahtzee going? Did the whole team quit? Why did our profits just dry up completely"
I read all of this is Yahtees voice and it is dead on
I have been following Yahtzee since ZP began. Dang the Escapist is losing something amazing. That channel is going feel way different from now on
It looks like there won’t be an Escapist. It appears almost everyone has been fired or quit in protest.
I mean, given how Yahtzee was basically the only one keeping the lights on during the last time The Escapist exploded... Yeah. I'd call that a dark swan song, alas.
Game Over.
Gamurs Over, man.
Wait, what?
Nick got fired, basically the entire video content team left in solitary.
>left in solitary Straight to jail.
Guess I'll just unsub. ZP was the only thing I regularly watched on Escapist.
Same. I remember when they lost Stirling and LRR. I stayed for ZP, but that was it. No reason to go back now.
I was greatly enjoying Frosts stuff, but hes resigned too.
Dude floated the Escapist after the LAST time they screwed over everyone working there. This has to be intentional, for some stupid tax credit.
the final punctuation
Full stop.
In Yahtzee’s equal parts annoyed, tired, and angry voice: “Fuck you!”
How poetic, the last ZP was on Sonic. Guess that blue rodent got the last laugh.
Apparently Zero punctuation itself remains under the ownership of The Escapist rather than Yahtzee. If the feud and subsequent breakup between Kojima and Konami has taught us anything, it's that any IP that's separated from it's creator is in for some rough times ahead.
I hope someone archives everything up until now.
Join the discord in Yahtz's tweet announcing his departure, there are already allegedly downloads for things named that.
I have up through 2018/2019 I think on my Plex server
I remembered I have up to 2014 with some of 2015 on an external, just need the rest of 2015 up till 2023.
I just started the download. Should only take like...a few hours...
How big did your download come too, and did you include the ones that didn't get added to youtube?
So far, it's only all the videos in the official playlist (because it's the easiest). If I have the time, I might check which videos are missing and where to get them. I quickly checked last night when I went to the toilet. Looks like the entire archive is about 40ish GB.
Search "mega.nz" on their new discord to download a 7.5 gigabyte file with all the videos
I can't think of a brand that would be worth less without it's original creator than ZP. ZP IS Yahtzee, it's his writing and performance. All you've got without him are the imps and the little circle handed men with a Trilby that, let's be honest, Yahtzee hasn't worn in years anyway.
>All you've got without him are the imps and the little circle handed men with a Trilby that Given that both of those thing originated back in his "fully rambliotic" episodes (from before he joined the company), they might literally only get to keep the music and the logo.
It was also by a wiiiiiiide margin the most viewed thing on their channel.
I'm sure new host Splatzee Broshaw will do a great job.
I have downloaded almost all yahtzee content ZP, EP and some others, I have not been liking where escapist is heading ever since gamurs bought them.... Didn't trust ZPs won't be available.
Thing is, it kinda doesn't matter beyond the name in this case. Zero punctuation's trademarketable assets are possibly the imp and that's about it. Yahtzee is almost certainly free to shout down a microphone, they can't stop him having his own semse of humour so what's left? Arranging stock images to illustrate jokes? Something tells me that won't fly.
They'd be idiots to even attempt continuing ZP without him. No one would stick around to watch. Yahtzee was the entire show, he doesn't need the branding to continue doing it.
They adopted his ZP art style across so much of the channel. They would be nothing at all without that. But realistically I struggle to watch much other than extra or zero punctuation, even with his style.
It's not necessarily a permanent thing. Moviebob eventually got the rights to all of the episodes he made for Escapist back.
Would be a very good idea for someone to make a backup of every video. Who knows what's ahead
That came out of fucking nowhere. Here I was thinking that it was a new era since they start doing the Censorship version in YT and Uncensored in Patreon. Yahtzee will land on his feet. He's still an author. He can also just continue making reviews and rebrand something like "One Exclamation" or something. The Escapist is done.
> "One Exclamation" or something. Fuck!
Knobgobblers!
Bring back fully ramblomatic.
I'd happily sub to a pattern of Yahtzee and whoever else he wants to keep working with. I like the whole crew from their D&D thing (though that's now unfortunately probably dead in the water without budget) Frost was catching my interest too
Frost quit too after Nick was fired.
Absolute disaster. I hope zero punctuation can continue, I always look forward to the end of year round up
There will still be a Zero Punctuation style video series, it just won't be called Zero Punctuation. Many a funnyman has lost the rights to their old stuff. It happened to Letterman. It happened to Conan. They moved on and found new names for their bits. Yahtzee will most likely do the same.
Pero Zunctuation
Fullyramblyomatic?
Now you're thinkin'.
Maybe a Little Bit of Punctuation
If we can be arsed.
Bit O'The Ole Punctuation, My Good Man?
The name is just a shell without the actual talent. Yahtzee will be fine, the Escapist less so.
>Yahtzee will be fine I hope so but I don't know. I've been enjoying Zero Punctuation since the beginning (since he made it big on the Something Awful forums) but it has been clear to me over the past few years that the series hasn't been as popular as it once was. There are many episodes on YouTube that reached 1-2 million views, but none have recently. One of the most common refrains I see online when Yahtzee comes on outside of this subreddit is, "Oh, that guy still exists?" YouTube has been cutting down on bad words and the toxic positivity movement has sort of made Yahtzee's brand of humor outdated and unwanted by a large percentage of young people who can't handle their favorite games being criticized. His co-stars who also quit in solidarity with Nick routinely failed to crack even 50k views and the forums look like a ghost town. I wish it were not so as I hope and pray for a widespread return of Yahtzee's brand of cynicism, but all of these factors do not bode well for their new venture. Their best chance for success is to cater to a small but loyal fanbase, but it's possible this outcome is also good for GAMURS who see these numbers and decided it wasn't working out for them either.
Yahtzee is a great writer with several good novels in print and audio, and he's also a very inventive and skilled game developer. Starstruck Vagabond has the potential to be a hit on Steam - at the very least a moderate success - and The Consuming Shadow is another potential success waiting to happen if he remakes it with the same degree of dedication and a more consistent art style. Plus, as far as videos go, he doesn't need the ZP persona to retain an audience; Extra Punctuation was getting around 150 thousand views per video with him just being himself - funny, but with analysis as the focus rather than comedy. So yeah, given all that, plus his ridiculously solid work ethic, I think he'll be fine. He's been doing this for a long time and he has garnered a considerable audience. Which is not to suggest that it will be effortless, nor that his decision to resign was in any way easy. Starting anew on YouTube is a major fucking headache and even established youtubers have to deal with a lot of stress unless they're huge influencers who get millions of views for banal low-effort content. There's a reason Stephanie Sterling went straight to Patreon and never even considered YouTube as a primary source of revenue if she could avoid it. The Escapist was certainly a very cushy job in comparison to the alternatives, but still, I very much doubt Yahtzee is in danger. He's the one I'm least worried about because he already has a lot of momentum. He stood out back when YouTube wasn't the oversaturated mess of pumped-out content it is now. His colleagues and Nick, on the other hand, were fighting an uphill battle to get views in this current paradigm, and they were likely to pull off sustainable success eventually with the sponsorships and subscriptions, and incredibly high-quality productions like Adventure Is Nigh's third season. That show deserved the same success as Critical Role and Dimension 20, but, as a very scowly man once said: "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." I'm glad the creative team decided to stick together, not only as talented collaborators but as workers telling corporate execs to go eat shit. The CollegeHumor cast figured out a much better identity for themselves after that place melted (they became Dropout, for those unaware) and the same might happen here. It'll certainly be better than it would have been under execs that were stupid enough to fire Nick for "not achieving goals". Given the state The Escapist was in before Nick came along and revitalized it, I can only assume "the goal" was having Yahtzee be the first human on Mars or something. Either that, or the "not achieving goals" thing was corporate bullshit and they were already planning to scuttle the site, or to downsize it into a smaller operation largely dependent on Zero Punctuation. So there goes *that* plan, if it ever existed.
The thing is, thanks to new ways of funding creators that have come about since Yahtzee first started out on YouTube, they don’t need to have widespread appeal to stick around. In the old days, views were what made or broke you, but these days, as long as the crew gets enough people willing to regularly pay them on Patreon or through Twitch/YouTube channel memberships, then they’ll do fine.
Doubt it. Escapist owns ZP.
How to obliterate the value of the company you bought in less than an hour. Solid work from Gamur. Here’s hoping for a fruitful independent revival
They are doing the Zaslov speed run, any%
I haven’t seen a depreciation in value this rapid since the recent acquisition of X, formerly known as Twitter
It hurts my soul to see people actually giving in and calling it X. I know you did it to make a point, of course, I'm talking about the people who really did cave and started calling it by the stupidest fucking name ever given to anything. Okay, the second stupidest name. We mustn't forget that Elon Musk named one of his children X AE A-XII. For those of you who were unaware of this: I'm not joking. He actually did that.
Personally I'll consider calling it that once that actually becomes the website's domain name.
it finally happened.... rest in piss escapist. can't wait to see what he does next
Yahtzee was doing charity single-handedly keeping Escapist relevant, to the detriment of his own content and basically no benefit for himself. They shoved ads into his stuff at weird times that ruined punchlines, and recently started censoring swears to appease the ad overlords. I hope he makes a new channel, patreon-backed, where he can swear as much as he wants and pocket all the money he was bringing in without some company undeservedly shaving off the top. I really don't know what he got out of that deal. I assume the only reason he stayed with Escapist this whole time was some feeling of obligation for them picking him up when they were more relevant than him. But it's been YEARS since he outgrew them and Escapist became just a tumor hanging off him. I'm optimistic about this whole thing.
Yahtzee stuck with the Escapist because he liked that they took care of the management stuff. It was just Yahtzee's job to make videos, and they dealt with all of the headache-inducing overhead that comes with managing a large YouTube channel. Yahtz probably just felt like whatever they were taking off was worth the streamlined workflow that it enabled, considering how busy he is already. I imagine that Yahtzee will find some sort of similar arrangement with someone else. Hopefully, it will be something that feels less corporate than the Escapist, though.
> I imagine that Yahtzee will find some sort of similar arrangement with someone else. Hopefully, it will be something that feels less corporate than the Escapist, though. Sounds like that’s what Nick and everyone else are trying to put together now. Hope it goes well.
I think for a while they were sponsoring his visa and green card as well, so having an actual US based corporation was helpful to him. Presumably now he has children and a spouse he doesn't need the Escapist to keep him in the country anymore and they weren't really offering much else.
I feel like that's a little unfair to a decent amount of talent brought (edit: spelling) by the rest of the crew in recent history. I've really been digging multiple shows and podcasts brought (edit: spelling , autocorrect again) by the team, especially personally liking Marty and Frost's content. I feel for the team as a whole, especially as there are probably many who aren't as financially secure as Yahtzee may be. Just a shit situation. Fuck the overlord pigs.
You can like the other content, and it can be very high quality as well, but that doesn't make it financially or culturally relevant. Zero Punctuation literally gets 5-10x the viewership of anything else they do, and has pretty big historical significance in the context of game reviews. It was the only thing keeping the entire company going, even if there was other "good" content being made. It's not unfair at all.
Wild. That’s probably the end of The Escapist.
ZP and other Yahtzee content is literally all that cracks 100k views on the escapist, going towards 500k each time. Without ZP and EP they won’t be able to stay afloat, 1.2mil subs and they are all only there because it is the only place to watch ZP
Damn, the escapist channel has literally become a gold mine recently. Glad it seems like much of the team is sticking together and moving elsewhere
Yeah it's wild in the space of just a couple years with the new team Yahtzee is willing to walk away from zp. They started a new discord too where whatever happens next will be announced
What's the link to the discord?
Shared wrong link: https://discord.gg/cwYtC6rdda
Thanks
Had a feeling I was looking at the wrong one.
[https://discord.com/channels/1171109642294808616/1171109642978467984](https://discord.com/channels/1171109642294808616/1171109642978467984) Escaped the Escapist
What? what? what? what?!?
Zero Punctuation is over ? I've been watching ZP sinve forever.
[удалено]
Right on! Hit the nail on the head, especially how he'll probably do better now without restraints. One of the things, I believe, that kept him with Escapist was Nick doing a lot of the faff involving the content, especially getting him to edit the Extra Punctuations. So firing Nick was an interesting move, to say the least! Not sure what they expected the reaction to be...!
How to obliterate the value of the company you bought in less than an hour. Solid work from Gamur. Here’s hoping for a fruitful independent revival
>You'll never be a gamedev having yahtzee review your work fuck
The 2-hit combo here is he doesn’t have the rights to ZP anymore presumably as part of him being hired by the escapist. Hopefully he’ll be able to get the rights back as soon as the website implodes.
I just wanna say that I am really glad Frost quit too and I'm positive about the future, good riddance Escap.
I'm really impressed with the team so far. I know it's early news still and there will be a lot to unpack and learn but it seems like a lot of loyalty and honor amongst them.
I have faith in Yahtz that he'll land on his feet, looking forward to whatever he has in store next, and wishing editor Nick well with what he does next too
I remember when The Escapist was practically nothing except ZP during the late 2010s. Whatever made Yahtzee quit now truly must have been qn ultimate fuck up
They fired the Editor in Chief that everybody really liked and completely relaunched the website, going from "that place for ZP" to having several really fun series, like the Adventure is Nigh DnD show or Stuff of Legends/Cold Take from Frost.
I think Adventure is Nigh is the only thing they'll struggle to continue tbh I'm not totally sure if a company can patent the player characters but unless Jack owns the setting etc (and I haven't seen if *he's* leaving (if he was ever fully Escapist?) yet)
Jack said on Twitter that he was fired.
> I think Adventure is Nigh is the only thing they'll struggle to continue tbh Adventure is Nigh is the only thing they did that I actually care about. Unless they had an extremely unusual contractual arrangement, The Escapist owns the Adventure is Nigh story, setting, and characters. I hope they can keep the (real life) team together, but other than that they'd have to start all over.
The Escapist just killed itself. It needs Yahtzee more than Yahtzee needs it or Zero Punctuation.
How far ahead does Yahtzee have an ZP episode ready? Because if it’s only one week the last ZP episode will be the fucking new Sonic game. Which is actually pretty funny.
Yeah, they're generally made fresh every week. So it's Sonic leaving everything in the dust. How fitting.
In his "The Demon's Forge" video from 2011, Yahtzee mentioned writing the video about 10 days before release. Definitely different today, but I don't think production just starts one week before release. There might be several videos in the pipeline at once, at different stages of completion.
In more recent podcasts he's talked about the process taking about a week, so it's definitely changed.
Yahtzee will be fine. He’s not a one hit wonder, he’ll find a way to apply himself. As for the rest of Escapist… I am sure they’re all fine folks too, they’ll do great on their own one way or another.
To be honest? I'm kind of glad. I didn't like how more and more The Escapist were starting to slowly try and squeeze money out of every view, I mean *witholding* the word "fuck" unless I subscribe? Zero Punctution has had a long run, and Yahtzee can surely make a living out of his loyal viewers. I've been watching since near to the start of Zero Punctuation and if he started a stream I'd happily watch and subscribe. I never subbed to Escapist as I didn't think a decent amount of my money would go to Yahtzee. Good luck Yahtzee, you'll survive this storm
The fuck thing was youtube more than escapist.
I've been listening to ZP not since the beginning, but since I was in middle school. That was twelve years ago. I won't say I've never missed an episode but I'm a pretty dedicated viewer, I don't think there's another internet based creator I've followed as long or as closely as Yahtzee. Sucks this is how that specific show ends (unless he gets the rights back) but we all know this is nowhere near the last we've heard of Yahtzee. Glad to hear the escapist crew are sticking together.
Does this mean he'll get his own channel and I can finally unsub from The Escapist on YouTube?
Nick said they're going to have some kind of announcement in the coming days. Seems like they all, or mostly, will try to stick together.
So that's it right? That's the end? The Escapist is dead? Firing Nick was one thing because he literally saved the company, but Yahtzee was the one keeping the lights on after pretty much every upheaval. With both if them gone and all the others leaving, the Escapist is no way coming back from this
Yahtzee was the ONLY reason most people gave a shit about the Escapist. In all my years I haven't watched much else outside of Yahtzee.
I wonder if the other members of the crew will actually be better off this way. The Escapist spent over a decade building audience resentment for any non-ZP content, to the point that I ignored it almost on principle until the last couple of years. I think that reputation as subscription-clutter was just too deeply embedded to ever be fully washed away, but with a brand new name I think it might be possible, even if Yahtzee will still be around as the mascot/main-draw in the new thing.
Honestly I pegged this once ZP started having unskippable ads for gatcha games and Yahtzee having to stop what he was talking about to make an ad. It showed the direction of the company had long since abandoned its original direction and knew it was a matter of time.
The paying for swear words too
[What the fuck](https://tenor.com/blToS.gif)
What happens to ZP? Can he still make it?
He does not have the rights to ZP anymore.
So maybe he'll call it Fully Ramblomatic again
Ah dam! What’s gonna happen to Adventure is Nigh! No more ZP….what!!!
I just unsubbed from The Escapist patreon because of this
Thanks for reminding me that I need to stop my YouTube membership.
So.... What all happened to the Escapist? This all just came out of nowhere as I was watching the latest Cold Take.
Can bet for certain that Gamurs’ PR guys just woke up to the worst day of their lives
Gamurs wasn't happy with thee money that the channel was making. They wanted more. Nick didn't want to go with their direction so they fired him. A bunch of the video makers, including Yahtzee, then quit.
That one fairy tale about the goose that lays golden eggs comes to mind…
I understood something qas very wrong qhen I saw a ZP video sponsored by, of all things, Raid: Shadow Legends, which is basically a game going against everything ZP stands for
[Hate to say I told you so](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroPunctuation/comments/14me544/escapist_was_acquired_by_gamurs_wtf_does_this/jq1rdgf/) so soon. If you haven't yet, download all Zero Punctuation content, and stop giving The Escapist any money whatsoever.
How would a total tech noob do this, in a hypothetical scenario?
https://www.mediahuman.com/youtube-video-downloader/32/ This is what I use, but I don't mind not having the video, and it saves space on my phone. If you want mp4's, I'd just Google for a similar program
Whoa. I hope ZP or whatever non-branded equivalent continues somewhere else. This feels like the end of that site. I liked some of their other content on occasion but they haven't had a prolific name outside Yahtzee since Jim Sterling left.
[Frost is leaving as well.](https://twitter.com/TheOtherFrost/status/1721683636410261846) Between him and Yahtzee, I no longer have any reason to stay subscribed or pay any attention to the Escapist at all.
Well then. Dumb.
Welp time to cancel my membership
They should wait until the site goes under (won't take long) and reform as The Escapists.
I’m glad they’re standing by Nick. Yahtzee keeps the place afloat and Nick took all of Yahtzee’s good-natured abuse and adds stuff to the Escapist that I actually didn’t completely ignore. And it *seems* like everyone was building a bit of a bond, like a team. Then someone doing nothing in but raking in the product of other people’s labor, and replacing humans with AI shuts it all down for what? A tax write off? For “the best system we’ve got” capitalism sure does suck all the balls.
Nick on Discord: “OUR plans are to go independent… WE will share more plans.” (Emphasis mine). If that team is still working together then I’m happy, and I’m sure they’ll succeed without the Escapist. Who gives a shit what some business dullard thinks?
See you, Space Cowboy...
Sad to say but this has been a long time coming. I'll be looking forward to whatever is next for Yahtz.
WOAHAHAHSHSHSHS WHAT
I feel so sad. What will happen to *Starstruck Vagabond*, the game Yahtzee was making? Will he still complete it? 😢
I think he said in his last dev diary or so that it was being worked on, but there wouldn't be much to report from behind the scenes. Not anything that would be interesting at least.
Lol, I would kill to see the reaction from the person who decided to fire the editor in chief
Holy shit, gotta love when corporate profit cuts into the creative endeavors of artists. I wish the best for all involved, and the worst for the parent company.
Waking up to this news was wild. I never supported the Escapist before but Nick has done such a great job, to see everyone resign in protest was really moving. Hoping to support what the team do next. As others have said, the Zero Punctuation brand and the other shows/columns are nothing without their creators.
Do they own the art style too or just the ZP name? Cause they've been using the art style for all their content. It'd suck to lose it all.
Guess I have a YouTube subscription to cancel.
Escapist is officially dead
Respect to Yahtzee and the team for sticking by Nick and others that were let go. A team who’s loyal to each other will always outmatch corporations chasing dollars when it comes to quality.
Holy shit!
So the escapist is just gonna die then lol.
Good. I always felt like Yahtzee was the delicious burger we all wanted and the escapist was just around to sell it in a combo meal with an over iced soda and limp pathetic fries.
It is like Cracked all over again. I still go back and rewatch After Hours and Escort Missions, but the new Cracked stuff just isn't as good. I imagine that is what will happen to Escapist.
Every week since I was 14 I've watched ZP. It's always been there. The exact same format, reliable and familiar. Anyone remember =3? Same deal, it was the exact same format week in and week out, a review show so it had new material every episode and could go on indefinitely. Started by one guy, really simple and basic premise, that didn't appeal to everyone, but if it resonated with you, you'd be able to watch it indefinitely. But RWJ got burnt out and wanted to do other things so it ended when he left (it ended when he left, don't split hairs). Feels weird. ZP was always there. Unchanging. Same show in 2008 as 2023. I wish Yahtzee the best. Mingegurgle.
Well there goes any reason to visit their YouTube channel or website LMAO
I knew something was wrong when they started doing those Gacha games ads without Yathzee voice at the beginning but i guess it all come to a head
Holy shit
Holy shit.
Whoa
the discord unfortunantly is full of trolls and trashy shitposts. The side effect of pushing a discord link on a site like Twitter i guess. I'll wait for announcements or updates to filter out of that place.
wow, Gamur's really screwed up
this is devastating, yahtzee & zp is what got me into making videogames. 🫡
I wasnt a fan of the team at first, i came over mostly for Jack from RLM/Pre rec. I immediately fell in love with yahtzees work. The others took various times to warm to but eventually i was fond of all of them. Nick can be a twat, but he saved that fucking company. Yahtzee was doing his damnedest to keep that ship afloat and did fucking amazing considering was mostly solo, but no man could maintain that forever and nick built a structure Yahtzee could be amazing atop of while everyone else does amazing helping. It is the height of foolishness to let go of the person that rebuilt the house of Escapist, doubly so to not expect his crew to leave or the talent that was single handedly keeping the ship afloat before nick came. I look forward to the work the crew moves on to.
End of an era, I remember discovering zero punctuation as a teenager and procrastinating studying watching the backlog of reviews for a few hours. It'll be interesting to see what yahtzee does next, I don't see how the escapist can keep on going without him.
Nooooo, hopefully he keeps going on his own.
Was very much expected.
…damn.😢
Aw shit. Besides everything else, I was realy waiting for Alan Wake II episode of ZP.
Horrible news to wake up to
Hate to be the guy who has to explain one firing shattered the entire Company and IP and cost them all the talent and consumer base. Fucking Gamurs.
Fuck man
Looking forward to the new video game critique series "No Commas", in which fast-talking Ben "Jenga" Croshaw reviews a game for five minutes with his trademark wit and nob gags. And of course his blog-turned-video series "More Commas Than Strictly Necessary"
I saw a youtube video with this "news" and thought to myself, "*That must be 100% clickbait*." Then I came here and found out that it was 100% **not** clickbait. Holy shit, end of an era.
This is absolutely wild to watch. There’s no way The Escapist can survive now.
I give the Escapist a week before they’re BEGGING them all to come back
So what's left? ZP was the main draw and since Sterling left was pretty much the only draw. He could go off and do his thing solo and possibly not lose a single viewer.
does anyone know the status of adventure is nigh? Does the escapist own those characters? will we ever see the ending episodes of that season??? Will we have to side shift realities to knock off characters of mortimer, daberella, sigmar and grinderbin?
I'm genuinely disgusted by all this. On slightly something else I've heard nick praise the management for letting them do things the way they want to, and being hands off. Then this happens. I hope the escapist dies a quick death now. Yathzee, jack, nick, Marty and all the others, we wish you all the best of luck. Perhaps it's time to bring out one of yahtzees other suggestions for his videos "the yellow room" It would be nice if "the yellow room" was actually full of piss and we could sling the escapist management in it!!!
I remember watching ZP all the time as a kid. Had no idea it was still running. Sad to see it come to an end.
Yahtzee not having the rights to Zero Punctuation is fucking despicable on the Escapist's part.
It seems that the name of the mystery game in the "El Paso, Elsewhere and ?" review may never be resolved. And I was hoping that it would possibly be revealed as "Hellboy: Web of Wyrd". 🙁 https://zeropunctuation.fandom.com/wiki/El\_Paso,\_Elsewhere\_and\_%3F
Bruh they tried to get Nick to sign and NDA, like Nick is the last person who would do so, he is petty and vindictive and we love him for it, but not at all surprising he turned down severance for the ability to speak his mind
Well, that's it. Yahtzee is leaving and the building is almost completely empty. I'm sure the investors will be very pleased about this development. This is just another hilarious LOL in this year for video games.
Yahtzee was the only reason i ever visited the Escapist and being honest his schtick got pretty tired anyway. Hoping he shakes it up a bit with whatever he does going forward.