Back in the early days of YouTube, Machinima spearheaded a huge portion of the site's gaming-related content. The channel signed many popular YouTubers, put out a dizzying number of videos, and amassed over 12 million subscribers in the process. Machinima has remained one of the biggest YouTube channels there is, but on January 18 it deleted all of its videos, wiping out over 10 years of content in the process.

At the time of this writing, it's unclear why Machinima decided to wipe its channel, but it likely has something to do with it being reorganized as part of Otter Media, which took place as a result of AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner. Some Machinima creators were transferred to Otter Media's Fullscreen after this happened, though others were dropped in the transition.

None of the entities involved with Machinima have released a comment on the situation. However, reactions from content creators indicate that they were not given any warning before their videos were pulled. It's also unclear if there is any plan to restore any of the videos, meaning that they could be lost forever.

While many YouTubers may have fond memories of Machinima, the company was not without its controversies. There were some famous cases of Machinima butting heads with its content creators, like it did with Ben Vacas, who signed a perpetual contract with the company. This meant that Machinima had the right to place advertisements on all of Vacas's videos for the rest of his life. Creators have also called out Machinima for misleading them and failing to be transparent about its advertising and monetization practices.

Besides the bad blood between Machinima and various content creators its partnered with over the years, it was also caught paying YouTube influencers to create videos praising the Xbox One. This resulted in an FTC investigation that in turn saw a number of new restrictions placed on Machinima.

Regardless of the controversies Machinima has found itself in, many will undoubtedly be sad to see years of gaming history deleted without warning. In the meantime, we will update this article if Otter Media or anyone else involved releases a statement on the matter, and we will also be keeping an eye on Machinima's YouTube channel for any changes.

Source: Dexerto