Machinima

Method

Machinima starts in January 2000 as Hugh Hancock's site for game engine films and becomes, under Allen DeBevoise in Los Angeles, the first gaming multi channel network on YouTube, passing one billion monthly views in December 2011 with more than 5,000 partner channels paid from a share of YouTube advertising. Google takes a 35 million dollar equity stake in May 2012, Warner Bros. leads 18 million in 2014 and adds 24 million in 2015, then buys the company outright on November 17, 2016. AT&T's purchase of Time Warner puts Machinima under Otter Media, which sets every video on the channel to private on January 18, 2019, laying off 81 staff and moving partner contracts to Fullscreen. The rung that breaks is the ad share model: perpetual contracts, an FTC settlement over undisclosed paid endorsements in 2015 and a catalog that a corporate parent judged worthless. The archive is never restored.

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The path: money and goods moving

• spawnedStyleHaulAllen and Aaron DeBevoise of Machinima co found StyleHaul with Stephanie Horbaczewski in 2011. (partly verified)2011
• backed byGoogleGoogle takes a 35 million dollar equity stake in Machinima in May 2012, its first open investment in a content company.2012
• backed byWarner Bros. DiscoveryWarner Bros. leads an 18 million dollar round in March 2014 and adds 24 million in February 2015.2014 to 2015
• spawnedRooster TeethThe Inside Gaming team leaves Machinima in January 2015 and becomes Funhaus inside Rooster Teeth.2015
• acquired byWarner Bros. DiscoveryWarner Bros. buys Machinima outright in November 2016 after 42 million dollars of investment and closes it on February 1, 2019 with 81 layoffs.2016
• acquired byOtter MediaOtter Media takes over Machinima in the 2018 AT&T reorganization and closes it in January 2019, laying off 81 staff.2018 to 2019
• spawnedFullscreenMachinima's partner contracts and creator team are transferred to Fullscreen in January 2019 as the network is closed.2019
• spawnedSpotterMachinima and StyleHaul co founder Aaron DeBevoise starts Spotter in 2019 to finance YouTube creators against future ad revenue.2019

Representation, events, tools

• atYouTubeMachinima passes one billion monthly YouTube views in December 2011 with more than 5,000 partner channels.2011