Flagship gaming website loses its video team as star of ‘Zero Punctuation’ resigns

After firing several major employees, online website The Escapist experienced a mass resignation, including the star of its biggest show.

The mascot for Yahtzee Croshaw's hit Youtube show, 'Zero Punctuation'. Source: The Escapist

Flagship gaming website The Escapist has lost its entire video team after firing its editor-in-chief, causing other employees – including the creator of hit YouTube series ‘Zero Punctuation’, Yahtzee Croshaw – to resign in solidarity.

“I don’t have the rights to Zero Punctuation,” Mr Croshaw said in a post on X, “but whatever happens you’ll be hearing my voice again soon, in a new place.”

Today, I formally resigned from The Escapist and Gamurs. I don't have the rights to Zero Punctuation, but whatever happens you'll be hearing my voice again soon, in a new place. Join this discord for updates in the coming days: https://t.co/Kdmb5biPDN

— Yahtzee Croshaw (@YahtzeeCroshaw) November 7, 2023

Mr Croshaw created the series in 2007 for the website, and has uploaded over 800 weekly episodes since its inception. The Escapist’s YouTube channel has over one million subscribers and one billion views. Zero Punctuation is its most viewed series, with its most popular video at 4.3 million views.

Former editor-in-chief at The Escapist Nick Calandra worked at the company since 2019, and wrote on X he was fired today for “not achieving goals” he considered unachievable.

“I have declined my severance pay and will not be signing an NDA,” he said, and added that he was locked out of his email while he was being fired.

I was fired from The Escapist today.

I have declined my severance pay and will not be signing an NDA.

I'm incredibly proud of everything my team and I achieved over the last four years, and the community that we built together.

Figuring out next steps now and moving forward.

— Nick Calandra (@nickjcal) November 6, 2023

Other employees who were fired or resigned include contributors KC Nwosu, Will Cruz, Jesse Galena, Darren Mooney, Amy Campbell and Sebastian Ruiz, editors Parkes Harman and Jesse Schwab, and designer JM8.

The Escapist began as an online magazine in 2005, growing in popularity throughout the 2010s. In 2016-2017, a large number of employees for the site were laid off, and the website was bought and relaunched under a new owner in 2018.

Former editor-in-chief of The Escapist Nick Calandra updates his readers on the state of the resigning staff. Picture: Discord/screenshot

The mascot for Yahtzee Croshaw's hit YouTube show, 'Zero Punctuation'. Picture: The Escapist

Mr Calandra wrote that he was among “many others” fired today in a newly created Discord server, which was shared by Mr Croshaw.

“In response the entire video team, including Yahtzee, has resigned from The Escapist. Our plan is to go independent, but we will share more plans on that later this week,” he said.

“Tomorrow you will know more about what our plans are for the future … what happened happened and if you’ve been with the new version of The Escapist since 2019, you know we just keep moving forward. We’re excited and you should be too.”