Machinima was once one of the biggest gaming channels on YouTube, but its sadly fallen out of favour as of late. Still, the channel was home to some of the most iconic videos in gaming history, including the likes of Super Best Friends Play and Christopher Walkenthroughs.
Unfortunately, all of these videos are now a thing of the past, as Machinima has removed all of its video from public viewing.
The sudden move has shocked the nearly 12.5 million subscribers of the channel, and it’s believed Machinima didn’t warn its fans before the change.
Machinima Happy Hour and Machinima Trailer Vault have suffered the same treatment, with all their videos also blocked from public view.
Machinima was acquired by Warner Bros. Digital Networks in 2016 but changed hands pretty recently. Warner Bros. was acquired by AT&T in 2018, and Machinima was passed to Fullscreen, the AT&T’s owned multi-channel network. Fullscreen is operated by Otter Media.
I cannot begin to understand the motivation behind nuking every official Machinima channel. I get that the MCN Machinima is a lot more valuable than the official content/channels of Machinima, but jeez. That’s like 7 years of core gaming content, gone forever. #RIPMachinima
— Frustrated Jacob (@FrustratedJacob) January 19, 2019
Speaking to Kotaku, 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.”
The internet is both surprised and saddened by the news, with the hashtag “#RIPMachinima” making the rounds across social media.
It’s so weird now that I’m going to be a part of that generation of people that will say, “remember Machinima?” #RIPMachinima
— Isaiah Colbert (@EyeZehUhh) January 19, 2019
Featured Image Credit: Machinima.