Machinima, the company that helped popularize gaming on YouTube in the website’s earliest days is officially shutting its doors. In the process of this shutdown, 81 employees will be laid off. On top of all that, a multitude of YouTube series onthe channelhas been set to private, making them completely inaccessible to viewers and their original creators.
I personally have very fond memories watching Adam Kovic, who’s now a part of Rooster Teeth’sFunhaus, on Inside Gaming for years. The channel also produced a ton of unique and hilarious videos in its earlier days likeCounter-Strike For Kids. I was also a big fan of the live-actionMortal Kombatseries(which I totally forgot about until writing this article). They also worked on other live-action series for games likeHaloandStreet Fighter.It was really a solid place that cultivated a ton of unique content for a multitude of gamers.
The shutdown doesn’t seem all too surprising, as Machinima really went off the radar for some time a few years ago. Back in 2014, the company came under fire for giving the Xbox One positive coverage withoutdisclosingthe fact that Microsoft was paying them to do so. As I’m sure many of you know, it’s pretty standard nowadays for outlets and content creators (especially in gaming) to disclose these types of deals to their readership and viewers.
Machinima had launched in 2000 as a place for video game content creators. In 2018, AT&T moved the company under their Otter Media brand, which is made up of other companies like VRV and Crunchyroll. Some employees who have not been laid off will be moved to other branches of Otter Media. In a statement toKotaku, a representative from Otter Media said:
We are focused on creating new content with the Machinima team, which will be distributed on new channels to be announced in the coming months. In the meantime the Machinima network of creator channels continues to showcase the talents of the network. As part of this focus on new content, we have pivoted from distributing content on a handful of legacy operated channels.
Of course, we hope that all of those affected by these layoffs will be able to land on their feet sooner rather than later. Hopefully, all of the content on that channel does not go to waste and can be uploaded elsewhere so it’s not lost to history.
