The now-former Editor-In-Chief of The Escapist Nick Calandra claims that they were let go for “not achieving goals.” Immediately after, there was a strong show of support from his team, and many resigned after the news. Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation was one of the staff members who left, and it appears there are big things coming.
To preface, I have spent a lot of time as an editor at Gamurs, Pro Game Guides and Dot Esports specifically. I do have a bit of insight from what it’s like working in that network so I’d rather keep my opinions on the firing to myself so I don’t break any NDAs. I am just reporting the news.
Calandra tweeted that he “will update later this afternoon on where you can find what’s next for the now-former team of The Escapist.” This sounds like a new site or a new center for content creation. The team is being led by Calandra and Yahtzee so they definitely know what they’re doing.
The number of staff that have left is pretty significant, and some are claiming that a dozen are no longer with the site following Calandra’s firing. Sebastian Ruiz of The Cold Take made a tweet signifying he was standing with the team. His tweet does allude to a big shift, saying, “I’ll be taking my chances with the guy who took a chance on me,” which normally signifies that a group will make a company.
There’s still so much to see, and this isn’t the first site that popped up after events like this. Both Press Space To Jump and Game Sandwich were created by writers who were laid off, so it’s not out of the ordinary. We wish Calandra and his team well but are also curious to see where The Escapist will go from here. It is clear that the next Editor-In-Chief or Managing Editor has their work cut out for them, and they’ll likely need to be a proven editor.
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