Machinima, a long-time and multi-channel network of video game content, has surprised viewers by wiping all of its videos without prior warning. The mass deletion comes just days after the company’s merge with Otter Media.

Following news of the merge, which was announced last year, content creators were told by Machinima that they would be moved to another network called Fullscreen, while others found their contracts suddenly ending or that they were dropped by Fullscreen. It was clear that Machinima was going through an extensive change, but seeing the entire video library wiped clean is an abrupt and saddening decision that caught even its own creators off-guard.

While heralded as a well-known content creation network, Machinima has been under fire in recent years for locking content creators into predatory contracts and creating a deceiving marketing campaign towards Xbox One consumers that led the Federal Trade Commission to pursue action. 

Machinima’s YouTube channel remains valuable, with almost 12.4 million subscribers, but without its extensive video library, Machinima’s future is unclear and rocky at best.

[Source: Destructoid]

This surprising action is likely due to the merger, but it’s sad to see so many years of video game content lost to the ether and how content creators weren’t even given any prior notice. Machinima’s future is shaky, especially since trust with its creators and consumers has been severed following this abrupt decision.