Hey folks!
This week, we are finally moving Zero Punctuation off of an on-site hosted video player and exclusively to YouTube. We have not made this change lightly, so let me explain our reasoning with the understanding that these updates will not please everybody, which is something we’ve been well aware of in making this change.
Starting with tomorrow’s episode, Diablo IV, Zero Punctuation will be released exclusively on YouTube just like the rest of our premium video output. This includes our other series like Extra Punctuation, Cold Take, Design Delve, In the Frame, and of course Adventure Is Nigh.
Going forward, the newest episode of Zero Punctuation will be released via early access to our premium subscribers, while the previous week’s episode goes out to the public. So for this week, YouTube is getting the Street Fighter 6 review, and Patreon + YouTube Membership subscribers are getting the Diablo IV episode.
So the only real change here is for those of you who do visit the website every week for the newest episode before it hits YouTube. Those who only watch on YouTube will most likely not even notice this change.
Our reasons for making this change are as follows:
1. Premium Subscriptions. No mincing words here. Our business model over the last few years has significantly shifted to focusing on our Patreon / YouTube Membership subscriptions. Making content costs money. Making content at the quality our team produces costs a lot of money. Our premium model helps fund the kind of content we like to make, which is often ambitious and not exactly algorithm-friendly like Adventure Is Nigh.
2. Removing the hosted video player. Going forward, the newest Zero Punctuation episode will go up on the website via a YouTube embed, just like the rest of our video series.
This will allow us to make sure you’re always able to view the video on the website with no technical issues and also simplify our video release schedule as Zero Punctuation was the only video series left that we needed to use the on-site player for. People have been complaining about the on-site player for years, and our team also doesn’t want to deal with it — so getting everything onto YouTube will make everything easier for everyone.
3. Post-ZP on the same day as the public ZP release. If you watch Post-ZP, one of the most frequent recurring questions is — where is the Zero Punctuation? Well, now you won’t have to ever ask the question again, as when the Zero Punctuation episode goes public on YouTube, the Post-ZP will be the same day!
As for this week’s Post-ZP, Yahtzee will be playing a surprise game of his choosing to get us onto this updated schedule!
4. Dropping PICO (The Escapist +) to focus on Patreon / YouTube Memberships. We currently offer three ways to support The Escapist directly – PICO, YouTube Memberships, and Patreon. We are going to be sunsetting PICO, which means that those of you who signed up for a yearly subscription there will be getting refunds. We will have a separate update on this soon, so please stay tuned.
The main reason for this is that we’ve been unable to keep up with delivering perks across all three services, and we need to consolidate them to make sure we’re treating all of our paying subscribers with the same amount of attention.
So those are our core reasons for making this change. We understand there will be disappointment for those of you that have visited the website for years to watch the latest Zero Punctuation episode before it hits YouTube, and please understand this decision was not made lightly and was also coordinated with Yahtzee before we made the final call.
In the meantime, we are working on a big update video for the channel that will provide you with new looks at our upcoming documentaries, the premiere date for Adventure Is Nigh Season 3, a new show announcement, and more.
We have a lot of exciting things planned for The Escapist as we continue to make our way through 2023, and as always, we thank you for the support you’ve had for us since starting this rebuild back in 2019.
If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below. If you have questions related to the sunsetting of PICO, please hold onto those as we’re working on a similar text update to give you all the details you need on refunds regarding that.
