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For the 2012 holiday season, the Yogscast team conducted another charity drive for Oxfam called Honeydew's Honey Drive.<ref name=honey_drive>{{cite web|title=Yogscast – Honeydew's Honey Drive|url=http://www.justgiving.com/yogscast|publisher=JustGiving}}</ref> For this charity drive, in addition to viewer donations through the JustGiving website, the team also donated the proceeds raised through Twitch subscriptions, merchandise and Christmas songs.<ref name="Live Streaming">{{cite web|title=Yogscast Plays Video Games For Charity This Christmas|url=http://newmediarockstars.com/2012/12/yogscast-live-streams-for-charity-this-christmas/|publisher=NMR|author=Ed Carrasco|date=4 December 2012}}</ref> They also worked with other YouTube content producers such as ], GameChap, ], and Athene. Honeydew's Honey Drive was successful in raising £240,568.25, more than triple that of the previous year.<ref name="2012 livestream">{{cite podcast |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeaUCypAXFw&t=2m3s |title=YogNews - Wizard Wars and Summer Expos! |last1=Richards |first1=Kim |last2=Sykes |first2=Paul |website=] |publisher=The Yogscast |date=9 August 2013 |access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref> The group were again nominated for ]'s Most Popular Fundraiser of 2013, and received a Special Recognition Award at the JustGiving Awards ceremony.<ref>{{cite web|title=Meet the winners|url=http://www.justgivingawards.com/the_winners.htm|publisher=JustGiving Awards 2013}}{{dead link|date=August 2018}}</ref> | For the 2012 holiday season, the Yogscast team conducted another charity drive for Oxfam called Honeydew's Honey Drive.<ref name=honey_drive>{{cite web|title=Yogscast – Honeydew's Honey Drive|url=http://www.justgiving.com/yogscast|publisher=JustGiving}}</ref> For this charity drive, in addition to viewer donations through the JustGiving website, the team also donated the proceeds raised through Twitch subscriptions, merchandise and Christmas songs.<ref name="Live Streaming">{{cite web|title=Yogscast Plays Video Games For Charity This Christmas|url=http://newmediarockstars.com/2012/12/yogscast-live-streams-for-charity-this-christmas/|publisher=NMR|author=Ed Carrasco|date=4 December 2012}}</ref> They also worked with other YouTube content producers such as ], GameChap, ], and Athene. Honeydew's Honey Drive was successful in raising £240,568.25, more than triple that of the previous year.<ref name="2012 livestream">{{cite podcast |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeaUCypAXFw&t=2m3s |title=YogNews - Wizard Wars and Summer Expos! |last1=Richards |first1=Kim |last2=Sykes |first2=Paul |website=] |publisher=The Yogscast |date=9 August 2013 |access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref> The group were again nominated for ]'s Most Popular Fundraiser of 2013, and received a Special Recognition Award at the JustGiving Awards ceremony.<ref>{{cite web|title=Meet the winners|url=http://www.justgivingawards.com/the_winners.htm|publisher=JustGiving Awards 2013}}{{dead link|date=August 2018}}</ref> | ||
In 2013, the Yogscast hosted the Dwarven Dairy Drive. For this and subsequent charity drives, donations were made through to ] instead of JustGiving, which allowed donators to receive games as a token of appreciation, and also allowed the donations to be directed at multiple charities rather than just one.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/264600/|title=Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed - Yogscast DLC on Steam|publisher=}}</ref> This charity drive attracted considerably more donators than previous livestreams, and raised a total of $1,159,746.33 (~£700,000).<ref name="2013 livestream">{{cite podcast |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFqrY2cyorc&t=2m45s |title=YogNews - New Channels and Charity Updates! |publisher= |
In 2013, the Yogscast hosted the Dwarven Dairy Drive. For this and subsequent charity drives, donations were made through to ] instead of JustGiving, which allowed donators to receive games as a token of appreciation, and also allowed the donations to be directed at multiple charities rather than just one.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/264600/|title=Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed - Yogscast DLC on Steam|publisher=}}</ref> This charity drive attracted considerably more donators than previous livestreams, and raised a total of $1,159,746.33 (~£700,000).<ref name="2013 livestream">{{cite podcast |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFqrY2cyorc&t=2m45s |title=YogNews - New Channels and Charity Updates! |publisher=The Yogscast |last1=Richards |first1=Kim |last2=Turpin |first2=Mark |date=25 January 2014 |access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref> | ||
In 2014, the Yogscast branded their live stream charity drive as the Yogscast Jingle Jam, which was remained the theme for the every year's charity drive since then.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/yogscast-announces-the-2014-jingle-jam-charity-drive/|title=Yogscast Announces the 2014 Jingle Jam Charity Drive|publisher=PC Gaming|author=Andy Chalk|date=21 November 2014}}</ref> The Yogscast Jingle Jam 2015 invited special guests to the live streams including big YouTube personalities such as ] and ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tubechum.com/yogscast-livestream-2015-jingle-jam-details/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160504233612/http://tubechum.com/yogscast-livestream-2015-jingle-jam-details/ |archive-date=4 May 2016 |title=Yogscast Livestream Christmas 2015 - Jingle Jam Schedule |date=29 November 2015 |work=tubechum.com |accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Yogscast/comments/3uhdh2/jingle_jam_charity_drive_2015_schedule_and_links/#christmas-box|title=Jingle Jam Charity Drive 2015 - Schedule and Links • /r/Yogscast|work=reddit.com|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> | In 2014, the Yogscast branded their live stream charity drive as the Yogscast Jingle Jam, which was remained the theme for the every year's charity drive since then.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/yogscast-announces-the-2014-jingle-jam-charity-drive/|title=Yogscast Announces the 2014 Jingle Jam Charity Drive|publisher=PC Gaming|author=Andy Chalk|date=21 November 2014}}</ref> The Yogscast Jingle Jam 2015 invited special guests to the live streams including big YouTube personalities such as ] and ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tubechum.com/yogscast-livestream-2015-jingle-jam-details/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160504233612/http://tubechum.com/yogscast-livestream-2015-jingle-jam-details/ |archive-date=4 May 2016 |title=Yogscast Livestream Christmas 2015 - Jingle Jam Schedule |date=29 November 2015 |work=tubechum.com |accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Yogscast/comments/3uhdh2/jingle_jam_charity_drive_2015_schedule_and_links/#christmas-box|title=Jingle Jam Charity Drive 2015 - Schedule and Links • /r/Yogscast|work=reddit.com|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> |
Revision as of 04:14, 1 September 2018
Trade name | The Yogscast |
---|---|
Company type | Private company limited by shares |
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | United Kingdom (2008; 17 years ago (2008)) |
Founders |
|
Headquarters | The Yogscast Studios, King William House, Queen Square, Bristol BS1 4NT |
Key people |
|
Products | |
Website | yogscast |
The Yogscast is a media production company and video game publisher based in Bristol who produce gaming related video content focused around their main YouTube channel, "YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon" and subsequent channels on both YouTube and Twitch made by other creators as part of the Yogscast network. The channel has its roots in videos about the MMO World of Warcraft, but came into the spotlight with their walkthrough play through of the sandbox game Minecraft. More recently, the group are known to play the sandbox game Garry's Mod, and the action free roam game Grand Theft Auto Online. They are well known for their role playing series Shadow of Israphel, YogLabs, MoonQuest, MarsQuest, and JaffaQuest, as well as their live action series. In May 2017 the Yogscast announced they would be publishing their first game, Caveblazers, which released later that month.
History
The group was founded in July 2008 by Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane, with the creation of their YouTube channel on 8 July 2008, and their first YouTube video uploaded on 25 July 2008. The name Yogscast was derived from the title letters of their World of Warcraft guild then, Ye Olde Goone Squade, which itself originated from Something Awful.
The Yogscast started with Brindley and Lane publishing YouTube commentaries and guides on World of Warcraft content. In 2010, they recorded a Minecraft video series which catapulted them to popularity. Other members of the Ye Olde Goone Squade created YouTube channels as well to create a group of YouTube broadcasters under the Yogscast brand. These first associates were Hannah Rutherford ("Lomadia"), Duncan Jones ("Lalna" or "LividCoffee"), Paul Sykes ("Sjin"), and Chris Lovasz ("Sips"). Since this point, more content creators have joined this group, forming "The Yogscast Family".
On 3 May 2011, The Yogscast was officially incorporated into a registered company by Brindley. Brindley and Lane then moved operations from their bedrooms in their home in Reading to their new headquarters in Bristol, colloquially dubbed "YogTowers".
The Yogscast team held their own panel at MineCon 2011, where they showcased some of the work of the Minecraft community. Following the event, the group came under fire from Minecraft creator Markus Persson, who stated that he would no longer work with the group, citing use of profanity and unprofessional behaviour. These claims were questioned by some MineCon attendees as well as game commentator TotalBiscuit. The Yogscast responded on Reddit and via a YouTube video, denying the accusations and expressing their disappointment and frustration with the organisation of MineCon, as well as their respect for Persson and the Minecraft community at large. Persson later apologised for the misunderstanding and retracted his accusations, attributing the statements to stress and miscommunication. To date, however, The Yogscast have not published further coverage of subsequent MineCons, nor have they ever worked professionally with Persson.
In June 2012, The Yogscast's primary channel, YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon, became the first channel in the United Kingdom to reach one billion views. That same year, the group started a Kickstarter campaign to develop a video game called Yogventures!. The goal of $250,000 was quickly reached, with a full total of $567,000 eventually being raised by 13,647 donators. The project was cancelled, however, in July 2014. Backers were compensated with a copy of the game TUG by Nerd Kingdom, who also took hold of all developmental Yogventures! artwork and source code.
The Yogscast had more than a dozen employees as of July 2012.
The main YouTube channel, "YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon", had 7,257,236 subscribers as of 24 July 2018 and a total of 3,841,823,104 video views as of 6 August 2018. The YouTube page for the main channel listed 32 other featured channels as of 9 August 2018.
The Yogscast Twitch channel had 707,148 followers as of 9 August 2018 and a total of 86,276,653 video views as of 9 August 2018.
Productions
Video series
World of Warcraft
The Yogscast's World of Warcraft videos were the first videos released by the Yogscast and largely took the form of parodic how-to videos. In July 2010, Brindley and Lane also began a series of play-through videos previewing the Cataclysm expansion pack's closed beta. Much of The Yogscast's initial popularity was due to media and blog coverage of these videos, with Joystiq (later becoming Engadget) regularly covering them as they were released.
Minecraft
One of the most popular video features of The Yogscast are their many Minecraft series. In December 2010, Brindley and Lane began an ongoing series of Let's Play-style Minecraft survival multiplayer videos. As the series progressed, however, it evolved into a semi-improvised comedy drama named Shadow of Israphel. This new series led to a boom in the number of the group's YouTube subscribers, though its sporadic release schedule was halted in July 2012, following the release of episode 42. The series has not been officially cancelled.
Another of Brindley and Lane's Minecraft series from this time involves their avatars "bumbling" through player-made adventure maps. The adventure maps series began being uploaded to the main Yogscast channel in January 2011.
Live Action
The Yogscast have been able to produce and take part in larger scale projects, including live action video series. The most common of these are the group's coverage of various gaming conventions, as well as RPG sessions and studio-promoted "challenge" videos. Other notable live action productions include a discussion with television and radio presenter Jonathan Ross, and a mockumentary-style interview with actor Warwick Davis, an interview with Sigourney Weaver, a promotional project with Peter Molyneux, and a series of promotional live action sketches with Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft, the BBC, Lucasfilm, Disney, Universal Studios, Blizzard Entertainment, Sony, and some smaller indie developers.
Podcasts
The YoGPoD
PodcastThe YoGPoD | |
---|---|
Presentation | |
Hosted by | Xephos (Lewis Brindley) Honeydew (Simon Lane) |
Genre | Gaming, Comedy |
Language | English |
Length | 15 – 120 minutes |
Publication | |
Original release | 5 February 2009; 15 years ago (2009-02-05) |
Provider | Yogscast Ltd. |
The YoGPoD podcast was first released on 5 February 2009, and was intended to run alongside the group's YouTube video releases. Along with hosts Brindley and Lane, it often featured other members of their World of Warcraft guild, and was initially released with a proposed weekly schedule. Releases became more sporadic over time, however, to the point that "YoGPoD 42: Strawnana" came out on 4 July 2012, 5 months after its predecessor. A Halloween-themed YoGPoD, "YoGPoD 44: Halloween Spack-2-cular" was released on 28 October 2012, followed by "YoGPoD 45: Halloween Spack-3-cular" on 30 October 2013. Following the 2013 Halloween YoGPoD, there was a short run of releases from October 2015 to January 2016, before the schedule paused again.
On 9 July 2018, a surprise Halloween-themed YoGPoD, "YoGPoD 51: Halloween Spack-10-cular" was released to celebrate a decade of Yogscast content, despite the episode being recorded and released far from Halloween.
The YoGPoD has no strict structure, but one of the more prominent features has Lane impersonate public figures that Brindley then "interviews". Brian Blessed, Warwick Davis and Elizabeth II are often mocked in this fashion.
The podcast reached #1 on the iTunes UK Podcasts chart on 4 July 2012, following the release of "YoGPoD 42: Strawnana".
Triforce!
PodcastTriforce! | |
---|---|
Presentation | |
Hosted by | Lewis Brindley Sips (Chris Lovasz) Pyrion Flax (Edward Forsyth) |
Genre | Gaming, Chat |
Language | English |
Length | 30 – 120 minutes |
Publication | |
Original release | 23 March 2016; 8 years ago (2016-03-23) |
Provider | Yogscast Ltd. |
Triforce! is a gaming and general discussion podcast hosted by Brindley, Sips and Pyrion Flax (Edward Forsyth). It was first released on 23 March 2016. The podcast is posted alongside The YoGPoD and features the trio talking about various ideas centred on gaming but also expand to current topics and sporadic thoughts. The structure of the podcast is fairly loose, with an introduction, miscellaneous topics, a gaming section, a reading from Pyrion Flax's homebrew fan fiction "Bodega" (Episode 19 to Episode 43) and a Q and A from Twitter followers at the close of the podcast.
In 2017, the official YoGPoD YouTube channel was rebranded for the Triforce! podcast. A spinoff audiobook style series, titled Bodega, was also debuted. The series features excerpts of the regular Triforce!, podcast where Pyrion Flax narrates his homebrew fanfiction.
Live broadcasts
Further information: The Yogscast § Charity initiativesThe Yogscast Christmas Livestreams, which has been known as the Yogscast Jingle Jam as of 2014, are a series of live streams that are shown over the course of December each year with the intention to raise money for charity.
High Rollers D&D is a Dungeons & Dragons series being played on the Sunday Tabletop RPG Show, part of the daily Yogscast live stream schedule. The show is broadcast live on the Yogscast Twitch channel on Sundays from 5pm GMT.
Charity initiatives
Since 2011, the Yogscast have organised a series of live streams every year in December to benefit charity. The idea began when fans would offer to send presents to Brindley and Lane during the Christmas season, but they would instead insist that the money be donated to charity.
The Yogscast started their first charity live stream in December 2011 with the intention to raise money for Oxfam's Give a Goat programme to "send locally-sourced and vaccinated goats to families living in poverty." As part of their charity drive, the group hosted a live stream on Twitch almost daily in December while viewers were encouraged to donate to the charity through the JustGiving website. The live streams were broadcast out of the basement of the house in Reading which Brindley, Lane, and Rutherford shared at that time. A total of £66,040.30 was raised, exceeding the target goal of £60,000. The Yogscast was named JustGiving's Most Popular Fundraiser of 2012 for this achievement.
For the 2012 holiday season, the Yogscast team conducted another charity drive for Oxfam called Honeydew's Honey Drive. For this charity drive, in addition to viewer donations through the JustGiving website, the team also donated the proceeds raised through Twitch subscriptions, merchandise and Christmas songs. They also worked with other YouTube content producers such as Hat Films, GameChap, TotalBiscuit, and Athene. Honeydew's Honey Drive was successful in raising £240,568.25, more than triple that of the previous year. The group were again nominated for JustGiving's Most Popular Fundraiser of 2013, and received a Special Recognition Award at the JustGiving Awards ceremony.
In 2013, the Yogscast hosted the Dwarven Dairy Drive. For this and subsequent charity drives, donations were made through to Humble Bundle instead of JustGiving, which allowed donators to receive games as a token of appreciation, and also allowed the donations to be directed at multiple charities rather than just one. This charity drive attracted considerably more donators than previous livestreams, and raised a total of $1,159,746.33 (~£700,000).
In 2014, the Yogscast branded their live stream charity drive as the Yogscast Jingle Jam, which was remained the theme for the every year's charity drive since then. The Yogscast Jingle Jam 2015 invited special guests to the live streams including big YouTube personalities such as CaptainSparklez and Tobuscus.
Subsequent years saw the charity drive break records in quick succession. The Jingle Jam 2016 raised a total of $2,577,801.17, more than double their previous record in 2013. The Jingle Jam 2017 outdid that by raising the same amount within the first four days, and by the end of the charity drive it had raised a grand total of $5,245,772, again more than double that of the previous year.
List of Christmas live streams
Year | Title | Charities | Total Donations | Total Funds Raised |
---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | Yogscast Christmas Goat Giving Special |
|
3,616 | £66,040.30 ($102,987.87) |
2012 | Honeydew's Honey Drive |
|
13,390 | £240,568.25 ($387,934.59) |
2013 | Dwarven Dairy Drive |
|
47,885 | $1,159,746.33 |
2014 | Yogscast Jingle Jam |
|
40,277 | $1,104,882.09 |
2015 | Yogscast Jingle Jam 2015 |
|
40,201 | $1,052,881.48 |
2016 | Yogscast Jingle Jam 2016 |
|
86,578 | $2,577,801.17 |
2017 | Yogscast Jingle Jam 2017 |
|
148,853 | $5,245,772.00 |
Cumulative Total | $11,632,005.53 |
- Converted from a historical monthly average GBP/USD exchange rate in December 2011 of 1.55947 according to OFX.
- Converted from a historical monthly average GBP/USD exchange rate in December 2012 of 1.612576 according to OFX.
Awards and nominations
Award Ceremony | Award | Recipient | Result | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Golden Joystick Awards | YouTuber Gamer Award | The Yogscast | Won |
2013 | Golden Joystick Awards | YouTuber Gamer Award | The Yogscast | Won |
2016 | The Shorty Awards | Social Media Awards (Gaming) | The Yogscast | Nominated |
2017 | The Shorty Awards | Social Media Awards (Gaming) | Hannah Rutherford | Nominated |
References
- ^ "PC gaming's new video professionals". PC Gamer: 18–19. September 2011.
- ^ Rory Cellan-Jones (10 July 2012). "The TV tycoons you may have missed". BBC News. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ^ Spillman, Rob (6 December 2011). "Inside the revolutionary world of "Minecraft"". Salon. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- Turpin, Mark. "Yogscast Publishing Caveblazers • r/Yogscast". reddit. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
- "Caveblazers on Steam". Steam. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
- "Yogscast | FAQ". Yogscast. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
- "Director Summary/Overview". Company Check Ltd. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
- "Minecon 2011 Schedule of Events". GameShampoo Magazine. 7 November 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- ^ Henry Winchester (22 November 2011). "Minecraft's Notch versus Yogscast: the story so far". PC Gamer. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- Nathan Brown (24 November 2011). "Yogscast "disappointed" by Notch Minecon claims". Edge Online. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- Tom Senior (24 November 2011). "Minecon Yogscast fall out down to "stress related misunderstanding" says Notch". PC Gamer. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- "The YouTube Channel (Main)".
- Hoggins, Tom. "Inside the Yogscast, Britain's Biggest Gaming Channel". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
- "Kickstarter-funded Yogventures canned, backers given Steam key for another game instead". Eurogamer.net. 17 July 2014.
- YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon - Featured channels. YouTube. Accessed 9 August 2018.
- "Topic: yogscast articles". Engadget. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- "Simon Meets Jonathan Ross". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
- "When Simon met Warwick". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
- "Xephos, Honeydew – 'The YoGPoD' British iTunes Chart Performance". DownloadCharts.net. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- Brindley, Lewis; Lane, Simon (1 December 2012). "Yogscast Christmas Livestreams!". YouTube (Podcast). The Yogscast. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- Brindley, Lewis (30 November 2017). "Jingle Jam Charity Livestreams 2017! Schedule and Games!". Reddit. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
... The Jingle Jam started because every Christmas people would offer to buy us presents to say thank you. The best gift you can give is to help those less fortunate at this time of year! ...
- "JINGLE CATS! - YOGSCAST JINGLE JAM - 1st December 2017". YouTube (Podcast). The Yogascast. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- ^ "Yogscast Christmas Goat Giving Special". JustGiving.
- "Most Popular Fundraiser". JustGiving Awards 2012.
- "Yogscast – Honeydew's Honey Drive". JustGiving.
- Ed Carrasco (4 December 2012). "Yogscast Plays Video Games For Charity This Christmas". NMR.
- ^ Richards, Kim; Sykes, Paul (9 August 2013). "YogNews - Wizard Wars and Summer Expos!". YouTube (Podcast). The Yogscast. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- "Meet the winners". JustGiving Awards 2013.
- "Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed - Yogscast DLC on Steam".
- ^ Richards, Kim; Turpin, Mark (25 January 2014). "YogNews - New Channels and Charity Updates!" (Podcast). The Yogscast. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- Andy Chalk (21 November 2014). "Yogscast Announces the 2014 Jingle Jam Charity Drive". PC Gaming.
- "Yogscast Livestream Christmas 2015 - Jingle Jam Schedule". tubechum.com. 29 November 2015. Archived from the original on 4 May 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
- "Jingle Jam Charity Drive 2015 - Schedule and Links • /r/Yogscast". reddit.com. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
- ^ Lane, Simon; Brindley, Lewis (5 January 2017). "$2.5 MILLION!!!". YouTube (Podcast). The Yogscast. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- ^ Batchelor, James (5 January 2018). "$5.2m raised in Yogscast's Jingle Jam". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- Julian Bencon (2 January 2015). "Yogscast Jingle Jam raises over $1m for charity". pcgamesn.
- Turpin, Mark; Brindley, Lewis (5 January 2016). "Vlog Updates - Jingle Jam 2015 Final Total!". YouTube (Podcast). The Yogscast. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
External links
- Official website
- Story of the Yogscast, Youtube
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