Critical Role Critical Role Goes Independent From Thursday

The most popular RPG livestream in the world, Critical Role, announced last year that they were leaving Geek & Sundry and going it ahead independently. They announced today that this change takes place on Thursday, February 21st.

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Here's the announcement in full.

"Bidet, Critters!

We have a few important updates to share with you regarding Critical Role and Talks Machina. After a long and successful run with Geek & Sundry and Legendary Digital Networks, moving forward, new episodes of Critical Role and Talks Machina will air on Critical Role channels. We are parting as friends and want to thank Geek & Sundry and Legendary Digital Networks for helping us build this amazing audience, and we wish them the best. They have been supportive and collaborative partners, and we are grateful they shared their platforms and a love of role-playing games with us. And while this portion of the journey may be coming to an end, we’ll be cheering for one another. Check out the below for more specifics on where and how to watch.

Without further ado, here’s where you can expect to watch our shows moving forward.

CRITICAL ROLE

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Starting Thursday, February 21st, Critical Role will air at 7pm Pacific at twitch.tv/criticalrole. VOD will be available for Critical Role Twitch channel subscribers over the weekend and will be available on the Critical Role YouTube channel at 12pm Pacific on Mondays.

Please note that new Critical Role VODs will be available only on Critical Role channels.

All legacy episodes of Critical Role (the entirety of Campaign 1: Vox Machina and episodes 1 through 51 of Campaign 2: Mighty Nein) will be available via Geek & Sundry’s channels. All new episodes will be available on the Critical Role YouTube channel moving forward. We have created handy YouTube playlists (Vox Machina link || Mighty Nein link) for you so that it’s super easy to find each of our episodes, and the video links have been posted here on critrole.com with viewing opportunities on at least one free-to-view platform. You can also continue to watch new Critical Role and Talks Machina episodes live on Geek & Sundry’s Twitch channel, if that’s where you’re subscribed.

Starting with Campaign 2 Episode 52, the Critical Role podcast will be available through the Critical Role podcast network. The entirety of Campaign 1 and the first 51 episodes of Campaign 2 will remain on the Geek & Sundry podcast network. This means that you will need to subscribe to the new Critical Role podcast feed if you’d like to keep up-to-date with the podcast version of the show.


TALKS MACHINA

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Starting Tuesday, February 19 (Episode 100), Talks Machina will air at 7pm Pacific at twitch.tv/criticalrole. Episode 100 will also be available live on Alpha. The VOD for Episode 100 will be available to Geek & Sundry Twitch and Alpha subscribers.

Starting with Episode 101 (2/26/2019), Talks Machina VOD will be available for Critical Role Twitch channel subscribers immediately and will be available on the Critical Role YouTube channel at 12pm Pacific on Thursdays.

In addition to the YouTube upload, Talks Machina (starting with Episode 101) will also be available moving forward in podcast format through the Critical Role podcast network on a one-week delay.

Please note that new Talks Machina VODs (starting with Episode 101) will be available only on Critical Role channels.

Thank you so much for your support, and we love and appreciate each and every one of you!"

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I am going to assume that Critical Role has been a vast majority of the viewership at Geek and Sundry for quite a while. Critical Role has 50k plus viewers every week, every other G&S item on twitch seems to be lucky to break 5k any time I take a look. Also assume that by the same measure a vast majority of money coming in was due to Critical Role.

 

[Neutron Penguin]

It’s quite amazing what they’ve accomplished. And I have to say, after trying a couple of other live-streamed shows, this is absolutely the most entertaining. Each episode generally manages to encompass utter hilarity along with moments of depth. It’s a tour-de-force of improvisational storytelling.

I wonder for how long they can sustain it, and for how long the audience will stick with them?

It's interesting, I was very obessed with campaign 1 but have since fell off watching the new campaign. I'm still interested in their story but considering the amount of hours I would have to dump to catch up, I've just stopped watching them all together.

 

[schneeland]

It's interesting, I was very obessed with campaign 1 but have since fell off watching the new campaign. I'm still interested in their story but considering the amount of hours I would have to dump to catch up, I've just stopped watching them all together.

Yep, same here. Critical Role (and similar shows) require(s) a time commitment that I cannot sustain over longer periods of time (campaign 1 already ran too long for my taste). That being said, if you have the time it is great entertainment and I hope they continue to be successful.

 

[Morrus]

I find podcast versions to be a great way to listen to AP shows. You can listen to them while doing other things (walking, driving, etc.) rather than having to carve out 4 hours of time.

 

[robus]

I find podcast versions to be a great way to listen to AP shows. You can listen to them while doing other things (walking, driving, etc.) rather than having to carve out 4 hours of time.

Yep - that's the way I do it too. Just listen to it in the background while I work and if I miss something hilarious or surprising I just rewind a bit. You don't have to follow every moment. Of course that's not for everyone, but it's a fun escape and makes a nice change from listening to music.

 

[schneeland]

Podcast versions are indeed fine (assuming you have space in your queue). However, I have to say I enjoy the video version a little more (the feeling of "passive" play is more present for me, then) - it's mostly the length that's a problem for me, I still enjoy shorter shows like the Acq Inc web series (the one from 2016), Geek&Sundries Starter Kit (which is nice, even when you are not necessarily the target audience) or Sagas of Sundry (the LARP-like show using DREAD rules) - with their average length of 45-60 minutes per episode - a lot.

 

[Count_Zero]

Have they posted the URL for Critical Role's independent podcast RSS feed yet?

 

[BookBarbarian]

Between Critical Role leaving, and TableTop not getting new episodes I've got nothing left to watch on G&S. I do still enjoy some of there written articles from time to time.

Overall I found the quality of G&S has gone down since its acquisition by the Nerdist.

 

[Count_Zero]

Between Critical Role leaving, and TableTop not getting new episodes I've got nothing left to watch on G&S. I do still enjoy some of there written articles from time to time.

Overall I found the quality of G&S has gone down since its acquisition by the Nerdist.

Didn't they do a few other tabletop RPG streams? There's one for Vampire, there's the Modiphius Star Trek one (which I need to get caught up on as well), there's the Deborah Ann Woll D&D show coming up, and there was/is a wrestling RPG one too, I think?

 

[BookBarbarian]

Didn't they do a few other tabletop RPG streams? There's one for Vampire, there's the Modiphius Star Trek one (which I need to get caught up on as well), there's the Deborah Ann Woll D&D show coming up, and there was/is a wrestling RPG one too, I think?

Yup I think those all exist.

I'm mostly just bitter about TableTop.

But I will watch Deborah Ann Woll in anything.