The gaming site “The Escapist” seems to be in a crisis: After the dismissal of the editor-in-chief, a large part of the team has left the site. Also, fan-favorite Yahtzee Croshaw, who is so popular for his gaming reviews in the YouTube video format “Zero Punctuation”.
What kind of site is “The Escapist”? The gaming site “The Escapist” has been around since 2005. They cover not only video games but also movies, series, and technology topics.
- The most popular format of the site is game reviews in video form and via a cartoon character: Zero Punctuation. The series now has 834 episodes and is popular “among cool kids”: Current games are torn apart in 5 to 7 minutes. The style of the comics and the stoic-sarcastic narrative voice have become iconic over the last 16 years.
- On YouTube, the clips from Zero Punctuation repeatedly achieve view counts beyond 500,000.
- The actual gaming site is not quite as significant: According to Similarweb, it reaches about 3 million sessions per month. Compared to major US gaming sites like IGN (120 million), GameSpot (72 million), or Polygon (26 million), that’s little – although the numbers from Similarweb are just estimates.
Most of the team leaves the gaming site in solidarity
What has caused the upheaval on the site? The editor-in-chief Nick Calandrea wrote on November 6 (via twitter): He was fired, declined a severance package, and will not sign a non-disclosure agreement.
He says he was let go because he “missed goals” that were not clearly defined. Many colleagues had already been dismissed for this reason before him, and today it was his turn.
He was also locked out of his email account while being fired.
But this was the reaction: In light of this dismissal, a large part of the team left the company in solidarity with the editor-in-chief.
Many of the people who left thanked the fired editor-in-chief: He had given them a chance. They also praised the team of the site and expressed how proud they were of the work that was done there.
Even the man who does “Zero Punctuation”, Yahtzee Croshaw, announced his departure. He adds: Although he does not own the rights to the format “Zero Punctuation”, he will continue elsewhere. His voice will not fall silent.
As it has now become known, it will likely be “Second Wind” elsewhere, a YouTube channel where the former team of “The Escapist” will soon explain how it will continue (via twitter).
How is this being discussed? On reddit, there is agreement: Yahtzee’s departure ultimately means the death of the site. He gave The Escapist an identity and helped introduce it to new people.
With his departure, the site is basically finished. The manager who fired the editor-in-chief could just as well have fired himself.
A tough time has apparently begun for gaming sites. We reported just 3 months ago on the end of a German project about MMORPGs:
One of the last German fan sites for WoW is closing: “You can’t live on these numbers”
