ScrewAttack
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| File:Screwattack logo 2011.jpg | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Genre | Video game reviews and entertainment |
| Founded | February 15, 2006 |
| Founder | Craig Skistimas Thomas Hanley |
| Defunct | 2019  |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Web shows |
| Parent | Rooster Teeth Productions (Fullscreen, Inc.) |
| Website | ScrewAttack.com |
ScrewAttack Entertainment LLC is a production studio that creates video game entertainment on YouTube, as well as their website, ScrewAttack.com, which launched February 15, 2006. In addition, ScrewAttack holds a yearly convention dubbed "SGC" in the Dallas, Texas area. Labeled as "The Biggest Party in Gaming", SGC features an array of panels ranging from gaming industry tycoons to YouTube celebrities, as well a 24-hour free-to-play arcade, exhibitor hall, and video game and cosplay tournaments. Recently, ScrewAttack can be found at other various gaming conventions, hosting a smaller free-to-play arcade similar to the ones at SGC.
The ScrewAttack.com website features various original content as well as a variety of third party content from partners. The name and logo are derived from a spinning jump attack of the same name in the Metroid video game series.[1]
History
ScrewAttack was created in 2006 by Craig Skistimas and Thomas Hanley. The first show featured on the site was an audio podcast called SideScrollers. Viacom Media Networks acquired rights to some of ScrewAttack’s programming (Top 10's, Video Game Vault and the Angry Video Game Nerd) adding it to their GameTrailers service.[2] Since working with GameTrailers, ScrewAttack's features have been downloaded over 245 million times from 2007 to 2009.[3] Overall ScrewAttack's content has been viewed over 1 Billion times through its website and various syndication partners including YouTube, GameTrailers, IGN, Revision 3 and Escapist Magazine.[citation needed]
In September 2011, ScrewAttack.com launched its new version, "The New ScrewAttack", which features several overhauled interfaces and designs to the website. Another website version, "Phase 2" was officially launched on May 22, 2012. Some of the new features of Phase 2 include the ability to customize profiles and the ability to "subscribe" to other members. Also included is the ability to create shows by uploading videos from the user's preferred video player. On the new profile is the "wall" (similar to the Facebook "wall"), allowing users to post items or comments in a similar manner to social networking sites. There is also a "feed" tab, showing the recent activity of other users that the user has subscribed to.
On March 28, 2014, ScrewAttack was acquired by Fullscreen. With the acquisition, Fullscreen rebranded its gaming-focused hub, Fullscreen Arcade, to ScrewAttack Network.
On November 4, 2015, ScrewAttack announced that they would be partnering up and becoming part of Rooster Teeth's family.
Crew
Current [4]
- Craig Skistimas -- Boss Man and General Manager
- Sean Hinz -- Senior Manager of Operations and Events
- Chad James -- DEATH BATTLE! Host and Senior Brand Manager
- Ben Singer -- DEATH BATTLE! Host and Senior Content Producer
- Sam Mitchell -- Merchandise Director, Script Writer, and Swag-Master
- Austin Harper -- Executive Producer of ScrewAttack Games
- Shaun Bolen -- Community Manager and Script Writer
- Bryan Baker -- Live Broadcast Manager and Editor
- Torrian Crawford -- DEATH BATTLE! 3D Animator
- Nick Cramer -- Content Producer and Editor
- John McCullough -- Writer, Editor, Genius
Former
- Tom Hanley
- Liz Luehrs
- Mickey Paradis
- Corey Pettit
- Destin Legarie
- Jose Mejia
- Jared Knabenbauer
- Drake McWhorter
- Lauren Moore
Current shows and featurettes
 |
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2014) |
Original shows
- SideScrollers - The site's weekly news podcast.
- Video Game Vault - A retrospective series giving a brief look back at older video game titles.
- ScrewAttack's Top Ten - A series in which the staff rank the ten best examples of a certain topic.
- Out of the Box - A show in which the staff unbox and play a title shortly after release, giving their first impressions.
- Screwin' Around - A live let's play series in which the staff play a random selection of games.
- The Best/Worst EVER! - A series in which various ScrewAttack staff members and occasional guests discuss their personal favorite, or least favorite, examples of a certain topic.
- Death Battle - An animated series in which fights between different fictional characters are depicted, using research to determine a winner.
- One-Minute Melee - Animated battles between fictional characters with no research done, all of which last no longer than one minute each.
- The Desk of Death Battle - A show discussing interesting facts learned while researching different Death Battle competitors.
- Five Fun Facts - A weekly series, bringing viewers facts about various popular video game franchises.
- Random Awesomeness
- Reasons We Love - A series in which one of the editors lists off a number of reasons why they love a certain game, character, developer, etc. in a short amount of time.
- Reasons We Hate - A companion series released alongside each "Reasons We Love" episode in which "Evil Craig" lists off the reasons why he hates the same subject.
- Is It Good? - ScrewAttack's poke at the arbitrary nature of game reviews, featuring a brief synopsis of a game followed by a random video clip to serve as a rating.
- The Industry - A live action series focusing mostly on crew member Shaun Bolen and his exploits around the ScrewAttack office.
Partner shows
- The Angry Video Game Nerd (often abbreviated as "AVGN") - a series of farcical retro gaming reviews by James D. Rolfe, an independent filmmaker and professional video editor.[5]
- Cinemassacre Mailbag - James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd) reads fan e-mails.
- Talking Classics - mockumentary that follows video game fan Keith Apicary, starring and created by comedian Nathan Barnatt. Keith Apicary (called the "Borat of the gaming world")[6] is a 28-year-old gamer who favors Neo Geo, Virtual Boy and Sega. Barnatt has stopped making the series since 2012, but will continue to use his Keith Apicary character in future projects.
- Brentalfloss - a New York-based musician who makes videos for ScrewAttack. His most famous creation is his "with LYRICS" series, where he takes a classic retro gaming song and gives it lyrics, typically referring to the subject matter of the game itself.
- Game Theory - Coined as "Mythbusters for gamers", Matthew Patrick's goal of Game Theory is to separate fact from fiction in video games and support topics in video games that may seem fantastical with real world facts.
- Game Overthinker - Bob "Moviebob" Chipman rants and speaks about video game phenomena purposely in too much depth. Chipman formerly had shows titled Escape to the Movies and The Big Picture, hosted on The Escapist. In his show, the Game Overthinker chooses to talk about topics ranging from how originality in modern games are more of an exception than rule, violence in video games, the longevity of video game characters, racism in games and more. In a related show In Bob We Trust he talks about just anything that isn't video games.
- Black Nerd - André "Black Nerd" Meadows rants or has opinions on pop culture, news, current events, geekdom, and 80s-90s nostalgia. The show features ScrewAttack appropriate rants on the website. The show has a lot to do with Nintendo-based stuff since André is a big Nintendo player.
- The Completionist - Jirard "Dragonrider" Khalil reviews classic games, placing heavy emphasis on their replay value, what getting 100% completion on a game gets the gamer and whether or not it's worth it to complete the game, ending each review with a rating of (in increasing value of positivity) "Burn/Donate It", "Look at It", "Play It", "Finish it", or "Complete It".[7][8]
Prior shows
Original shows
- Hard News
- Unaware Steve
- Metal Gear Ben
- The Scoop!
- Jose's Puntos
- Trailer of the Week
- Hump Day
- Cheapy D's Cheap-Ass Corner
- Corey's Corner
- Rapid Fire Rundown
- How-to with Chad
- Life in a Game
- Nametags
- The Digital Forecast
- Spotlight
- Reboot or Retro
- The Armory
- Totally SCREWED
- The Clip of the Week
- Great Moments in Video Game History!
Partner shows
- GameJew - a former ScrewAttack series featuring Jonathan Mann, a Jewish fan of Mario. In the story, The GameJew dons his red Mario hat and his red overalls, all while existing in real life situations and composing songs relevant to games.[9][10]
- Captain S - Sega enthusiast Captain S (a parody of Captain N) goes through a series of misadventures in Video Land.[11]
- "Awesome Video Games" - Retro brothers Ace and Chet review various NES games and accessories. Produced by Far From Subtle TV.
- ScrewAttack Europe - Introduced in late-2006, ScrewAttack Europe, located in Northwood, London, United Kingdom, was the name used by video game enthusiasts and TV presenters, Guru Larry (Larry Bundy Jr) and "UK" Wez (Wesley Lock), for voluntarily-created, video game-related content for ScrewAttack.com. ScrewAttack Europe was the first official international feature and the only outside group to have "ScrewAttack" in their title. Alongside The Angry Video Game Nerd, ScrewAttack Europe was one of the longest lasting associates of ScrewAttack and second most popular partner provider after the AVGN.
- In September 2010, Lock and Bundy resigned from ScrewAttack due to contractual problems and Screwattack Europe was closed. As of November 2013, they broadcast the same shows for Channel Awesome.
Events and other media
SGC
Formerly known as "ScrewAttack Gaming Convention", SGC is a live event ScrewAttack produces annually for its fans. SGC was originally held in 2009 and 2010 and after a three-year hiatus to allow ScrewAttack to focus on other business opportunities the event returned after being successfully Kickstarted[12] by the ScrewAttack community. SGC 2013 was held at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas in June 2013. Its attendance topped 3500. SGC 2014 took place July 11–13, 2014 at the Sheraton Dallas with nearly 5000 in attendance.
DVDs and Other Merchandise
ScrewAttack has created an abundance of merchandise, namely DVDs, of some of their and their partner's online content.
| Year | Title | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 1 | In Print |
| 2008 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 2 | In Print |
| 2009 | ScrewAttack's 8-Bit Glory DVD Set | Out of Print |
| 2009 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 3 | In Print |
| 2010 | ScrewAttack's Too Hot for the Internet | In Print |
| 2010 | SGC 2010 | Out of Print |
| 2010 | Metal Gear Ben | In Print |
| 2010 | Talking Classics Vol. 1 | In Print |
| 2010 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 4 | In Print |
| 2011 | Cinemassacre: Cinematic Catastrophies | In Print |
| 2011 | Cinemassacre: The Deader the Better | In Print |
| 2011 | Cinemassacre: Legend of the Blue Hole & The Head Incident | In Print |
| 2011 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 5 | In Print |
| 2012 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 6 | In Print |
| 2013 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 7 | In Print |
| 2015 | Angry Video Game Nerd Vol. 8 | In Print |
ScrewAttack Games
ScrewAttack Games is a separate brand within ScrewAttack that focuses on digital titles.
| Year | Title | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Texting of the Bread | iOS, Android (cancelled) |
| 2013 | Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures | Microsoft Windows, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS |
| 2015 | Disorder | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| 2015 | Jump 'N' Shoot Attack | iOS, Android, Windows Phone |
| 2015 | Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation | Microsoft Windows |
References
- ^ "The New ScrewAttack". The New ScrewAttack. ScrewAttack Entertainment LLC. 2006–2012. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ^ "MTV Networks' GameTrailers Acquires Exclusive Rights To ScrewAttack Programming". GameTrailers. 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
- ^ Staff (2012). "GT Top Games". GameTrailers.com. GameTrailers.com. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ^ http://www.screwattack.com/about-us
- ^ Resume at Cinemassacre.com
- ^ Gallagher, Danny (26 July 2010). "Being Keith Apicary — Meet the Borat of the Gaming World". Asylum.com. AOL Inc.
- ^ Resident Evil The Remake: I Don't Want This Mansion! The Completionist Episode 35 on YouTube
- ^ Imagine: Wedding Designers- WHAT THE HELL? - The Completionist Episode 18 on YouTube
- ^ Article Detail - Nintendo Wii News - QJ.NET
- ^ Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical - Boing Boing TV
- ^ http://www.pbc-productions.com/CaptainS/Main.html
- ^ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/screwattack/let-throw-the-best-gaming-party-in-the-world-again
External links
- Articles needing cleanup from May 2008
- Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from May 2008
- Wikipedia pages needing cleanup from May 2008
- Video game news websites
- Video game review websites
- Cinemassacre
- Television programs about video games
- Internet television channels
- Internet properties established in 2006