Machinima: game over and 81 employees are fired

As we told you earlier, the Machinima YouTube channel hid all its videos from public access, effectively deleting all the created content. The situation cleared: the company ceases to exist. According to Deadline, “The 81 layoffs were confirmed via a California Employment Development Department WARN Report filing. It said they were enacted last week and take effect March 16.”

The total staff previously numbered no more than 100 people. Thus, a small part of the team is still listed in the company. The company representatives commented on the situation in an interview with Variety: 

“Machinima has ceased its remaining operations, which includes layoffs.”

Former senior vice president of global marketing at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Russell Arons was appointed Machinima's general manager in March 2017. Warner Bros. Corporation at that time already owned Machinima. Aarons will not be affected by the current wave of layoffs - he will remain working at Otter Media, which is part of WarnerMedia and manages Machinima.

“Otter has brought over valuable parts of the Machinima business that we believe amplify our focus on the gaming and anime community.”

It seems that Machinima will no longer be used as a brand to attract consumers, and the company will continue to exist only formally.

Machinima appeared in 2000, then developed into a very successful YouTube channel with almost 12.4 million subscribers. The main content was the video on game engines.

The content of the channel looks something like this today: