In 2016, The Escapist laid off a 'number of employees' and shuttered its main office in Durham, North Carolina leaving the website's main operation out of Seattle. On January 21, 2015, Defy Media announced it was cutting staff across a portfolio of its main sites including The Escapist, GameTrailers and GameFront. In 2014, Alloy Digital merged with Break Media to form Defy Media, with a consolidated portfolio that did not mention The Escapist. For a few years afterwards, Alloy cross-promoted Smosh Games on The Escapist. On November 15, 2012, it was announced that Themis Media had been acquired by Alloy Digital for an undisclosed sum. Macris would later become involved with the sale of Themis Media to Alloy Digital, as well as supporting the Gamergate controversy in 2014 by openly adopting stricter policies. As a result, Extra Credits broke ties with The Escapist, moving to Penny Arcade and later becoming independent. Later, those creators would also break ties with The Escapist, leaving Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw as the sole contracted creator by 2017. Among them were MovieBob, Jim Sterling, LoadingReadyRun, and the creators of No Right Answer. ĭuring the dispute, a number of other contracted creators spoke out in support of Extra Credits, relaying similar stories of mistreatment by the management. Alexander Macris, owner and co-founder of The Escapist, stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of Extra Credits for The Escapist and to compensate Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts. They planned to use this extra money to create a game publishing label, where the revenue would go directly into funding subsequent projects. They began a charity fund on RocketHub, separate from The Escapist, and received substantially more money than was necessary for Theus's surgery.
After not being paid for months, the Extra Credits team needed to pay for surgery for their artist, Allison Theus. 2011–2018: Dispute and decline Īround the end of July 2011, there was a dispute between The Escapist and James Portnow, the producer of Extra Credits. In 2010, The Escapist launched a membership service called the Publisher's Club which for $20 a year removed advertisements from the site, conferred forum benefits and entry into special contests.
Within the next four years, The Escapist contracted several creators including LoadingReadyRun, Miracle of Sound, and Bob "MovieBob" Chipman, as well as helping launch Extra Credits as a rebrand of its creators' videos.
THE ESCAPIST THE GAME SERIES
The most notable addition to the content lineup was Zero Punctuation, a weekly animated review series that led to a four-fold increase in web traffic. Although the weekly topic and publish schedule was retained, new regular content additions included more game reviews, editorial articles, conference coverage, and a relaunch of Shoot Club by Tom Chick.
THE ESCAPIST THE GAME PDF
On July 9, 2007, the site relaunched with a completely new design, which also saw the end of the weekly PDF issues and a shift in layout to one more similar to other websites. The website noted that the webzine had become the "flagship brand" for Themis, which runs other websites and ventures related to the gaming industry, with the reputation of "a widely read and highly respected form of game journalism" and "paying writers top dollar". According to Themis, by late 2006 the website had 150,000 monthly readers. Following issues included work by Tom Chick, Allen Varney, Jim Rossignol and other top writers from in and outside the game industry, including a four-part piece by leading game designer Warren Spector. The premier issue featured pieces from well-known gaming-community authors including Jerry Holkins, Kieron Gillen, and John Scott Tynes. Editor-in-chief Julianne Greer had not been involved in the gaming industry before The Escapist, and had a background in marketing and new media. The Escapist was conceived as a PDF-format magazine by Themis Media, whose president Alexander Macris had previously found success with its sister site WarCry Network. History 2005–2011: Founding and popularity