Machinima begins process of closing down

Tuesday, February 5th, 2019 10:44PM CST

Categories: Cartoon News, Company News
Posted by: Emerje Views: 44,671

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You'll recall we recently wrote about Machinima shutting down sources to all of their videos including their series of Prime Wars Trilogy animations. Now after some recent events we seem to have a better understanding as to why. Thanks to various news outlets such as the the Hollywood Reporter and Variety we've learned that Machinima has officially begun closing down as of this month.

Apparently this has been a long time in coming. In 2016 Machinima was bought by Warner Bros. Digital Networks which was in turn bought by AT&T in 2018. This past December AT&T began a restructuring process that reorganized many of their media outlets under their own Otter Media (Crunchyroll, VRV, Rooster Teeth, Fullscreen Media, Gunpowder & Sky, and Hello Sunshine) while Machinima is being absorbed into Fullscreen. As a result 81 of Machinima's 100 employees have been laid off as part of an overall 10% reduction in AT&T staff.

Fullscreen calls their work "high-intensity marketing for the social-first generation" which probably does describe the Transformers Prime Wars animations fairly accurately. Most likely once they've ironed out new license agreements we'll see Machinima's videos return online in one way or another, but for now everything is up in the air. Whether or not we see a War for Cybertron animated trilogy has yet to be seen.

So what do you think? Is this a crushing blow to Transformers animations or no great loss in disposable media? Sound off in the Energon Pub forums below!

Credit(s): Hollywood Reporter, Variety

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Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2008379)
Posted by Colt on February 5th, 2019 @ 11:47pm CST

Sad to hear about this. Hope those people who lost their jobs are able to find new ones soon.

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2008382)
Posted by Nemesis Maximo on February 5th, 2019 @ 11:57pm CST

I figured something like this was coming after they privatized all their YouTube videos.

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2013992)
Posted by Sarahthecutevixen on March 8th, 2019 @ 4:02pm CST

Good news, everyone!
https://roosterteeth.com/series/transformers the trilogy is back

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2013994)
Posted by o.supreme on March 8th, 2019 @ 4:14pm CST

https://gfycat.com/discreteglisteningdamselfly

seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not. Still holding out hope that one of the special retailer releases of BB will have TR & PotP as an extra feature.

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2013996)
Posted by Sarahthecutevixen on March 8th, 2019 @ 4:37pm CST

o.supreme wrote:https://gfycat.com/discreteglisteningdamselfly

seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not. Still holding out hope that one of the special retailer releases of BB will have TR & PotP as an extra feature.

Oh good you went with a futurama reference also

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014014)
Posted by Sabrblade on March 8th, 2019 @ 7:35pm CST

o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.

I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014016)
Posted by Sarahthecutevixen on March 8th, 2019 @ 8:04pm CST

Sabrblade wrote:
o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.
I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

I prefer official sources

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014030)
Posted by Sabrblade on March 8th, 2019 @ 10:56pm CST

TrypticonCarne wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.
I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

I prefer official sources

Sure, but sometimes one must make do with what's available.

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014033)
Posted by Sarahthecutevixen on March 8th, 2019 @ 11:25pm CST

Sabrblade wrote:
TrypticonCarne wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.
I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

I prefer official sources
Sure, but sometimes one must make do with what's available.

you think they will make a news story about this being available now or let it fade out?

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014097)
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on March 9th, 2019 @ 5:40pm CST

Thanks to a heads up from several Seibertronians, we have word that, after Machinima privatized all the Prime Wars cartoons and then began to shut down, there is now a place where you can still go and watch the series!

With the Machinima closedown, it looked as though the only way to watch any part of the cartoon was to order the Bonus version of The Last Knight and watch Combiner Wars there. But now, Rooster Teeth has picked up the reins and is now airing the entire trilogy. The trilogy encompasses the Combiner Wars, Titans Return, and Power of the Primes cartoons, and features the main characters of Windblade, Megatron, Optimus Prime, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, and more. Rooster Teeth even includes all the preludes to Combiner Wars as well.

If you are a member of Rooster Teeth, you can watch the entire series unhindered by adds. And even if you are a casual viewer, you can still watch the series, albeit with some ads thrown in there too.

It is also worth noting that Rooster Teeth is the company where the upcoming new Netflix series is being produced.

Let us know what you think of this new Prime Wars series development below!

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014103)
Posted by Randomhero on March 9th, 2019 @ 6:26pm CST

As much as I feel rooster teeth has lost what made them who they are and feel they’re just a dumpster I have been wanting to rewatch Power of the Primes again

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014113)
Posted by Nexus Knight on March 9th, 2019 @ 11:37pm CST

Randomhero wrote:As much as I feel rooster teeth has lost what made them who they are and feel they’re just a dumpster I have been wanting to rewatch Power of the Primes again

Of course they are a dumpster! They got the Prime Wars Trilogy dumped on them.

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014599)
Posted by Emperor Omega on March 14th, 2019 @ 8:23am CDT

That's odd.

I've tried to watch several episodes of the Prime War Trilogy on Rooster Teeth & it won't play.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

Re: Machinima begins process of closing down (2014661)
Posted by Sabrblade on March 14th, 2019 @ 3:28pm CDT

Emperor Omega wrote:That's odd.

I've tried to watch several episodes of the Prime War Trilogy on Rooster Teeth & it won't play.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

For me, I tried playing Starscream's CW Prelude (arguably the best thing to come out of this trilogy) awhile back, and only the first bit of it would load and play.