Critical Role Productions
Critical Role Productions, LLC is a multimedia production company incorporated in 2015 by the members of the creator-owned streaming show "Critical Role". The first two shows from the company, "Critical Role" and "Talks Machina", originally premiered on Geek & Sundry. The company moved to their own studio space in 2018, and began putting out new shows on their own Twitch and YouTube channels. A split from Legendary Digital Networks was completed in early 2019, at which point Critical Role Productions took over production responsibility for the "Critical Role" and "Talks Machina" shows. History. Geek & Sundry era (2015–19 ). Critical Role Productions was founded by the members of the creator-owned D&D streaming show "Critical Role" in 2015. The group had originally begun playing at home in 2012. Felicia Day approached the group about playing it in a live-streamed format for Geek & Sundry, after hearing about the group's private tabletop role-playing game from Ashley Johnson. In order to streamline gameplay for the show, the game's characters were converted from "Pathfinder" to "Dungeons & Dragons" 5th edition before the web series began airing on March 12, 2015. The company's first show, "Critical Role", was a huge  success. The company's second show, "Talks Machina", then premiered on Geek & Sundry and Alpha, Legendary Digital Networks' subscription streaming service, in 2016. In June 2018, Critical Role launched its own Twitch and YouTube channels, with cast member Marisha Ray being announced as the creative director of the franchise. Critical Role then started to self-produce new shows and content which did not air on Geek & Sundry's channels. The sets for "Critical Role" and "Talks Machina" moved from Legendary Digital Network's studios to Critical Role's own studios in July 2018. The eight founders—the cast members of  Critical Role itself―"own equity stakes in the company". , Travis Willingham serves as chief executive officer, Matthew Mercer as chief creative officer, and Marisha Ray as creative director. Several senior Legendary Digital staff members joined Critical Role during the split, with head of digital strategy and operations Ed Lopez becoming chief operating officer, vice president of marketing Rachel Romero becoming senior vice president of marketing at Critical Role, and Ben Van Der Fluit becoming senior vice president of business development. Independent studio (2019–present). Critical Role's split from Geek & Sundry and Legendary Digital Networks completed in February 2019. From this  point Critical Role took over production responsibility of the "Critical Role" and "Talks Machina" shows, with live broadcasts of their shows and VODs now airing exclusively on Critical Role's own channels. The disengagement from Legendary's streaming service Alpha would cancel "Talks Machina: After Dark", which had been exclusive to the service. Some "legacy episodes" (currently the entirety of Campaign 1, the first 19 episodes of Campaign 2, as well as the corresponding episodes of official discussion show "Talks Machina") remain available in Geek & Sundry's archives on YouTube and Twitch. Beginning in December 2019, some older content was  migrated from Geek & Sundry to Critical Role's channels. On March 4, 2019, Critical Role launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a 22-minute animation called "Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special". The final total raised by the Kickstarter when it closed on April 19, 2019, was $11.3M turning the intended animated special into a ten episodes animated series. When the campaign closed, it was one of the most quickly funded in Kickstarter history, and was the most funded Kickstarter for TV and film projects. In November 2019, Amazon Prime Video announced that  they had acquired the streaming rights to "The Legend of Vox Machina", and had commissioned 14 additional episodes (two additional episodes for season 1 and a second season of 12 episodes). The project was originally slated for release in late 2020, however the COVID-19 pandemic delayed release until 2022. In September 2019, Critical Role announced it had "entered into licensing agreements with Funko, McFarlane Toys, Penguin Random House, and Ripple Junction" to produce merchandise such as apparel and collectibles. Critical Role aired a sponsored one-shot using the "Feast of Legends" RPG system—developed by fast-food chain Wendy's—on  October 3, 2019. Following a strong negative response from some Critical Role fans the Critical Role team removed the VOD, and announced via Twitter that they had donated their profits from the sponsorship. Shelly Jones, in an essay in the book "Watch Us Roll" (2021), commented that decision was "presumably" made by the show's "development team for purposes of branding and controlling the criticism circulating about the failed experiment". In the first half of 2020, a claim was made online that Critical Role had retained the services of a sensitivity reader but had not paid the individual. As a  result, the company called in an outside counsel to investigate the claims. Whilst the investigation concluded the claims in Critical Role's favor; the person who made the original claim tweeted that they had not been contacted during the investigation. The coronavirus pandemic caused major scheduling changes for Critical Role Productions beginning in March 2020. This included a four month hiatus for "Critical Role" itself, the launch of new remote format shows such as "Narrative Telephone," and new remote formats for other shows including "Talks Machina". A number of other shows were placed on hiatus, including "Pub Draw, Mame Drop  and All Work No Play". Darrington Press, a "new board and card game publishing brand", was announced by Critical Role in October 2020. In August 2021, Brian W. Foster, host of "Talks Machina" and other shows, left the company to pursue other "creative endeavors", a move which effectively ended "Talks Machina" and "Between the Sheets," the latter of which had been on hiatus since the pandemic. "Critical Role" returned to the pre-pandemic common table format with the launch of Campaign Three in October 2021, while a new aftershow launched in 2022 in the form of "4-Sided Dive". A  leak of Twitch data in October 2021 revealed that Critical Role is among the highest earners on Twitch; the company received a total direct payout of $9,626,712 between September 2019 and September 2021 from Twitch in gross income from subscriptions and ad revenue. "BBC News" commented that this list of payments is unlikely to "account for tax paid on income" and that "many, if not all, of these top streamers are effectively large-scale media operations, with their own employees and business expenses - so the numbers do not represent 'take-home pay' for those listed". "Business Insider" highlighted that  Critical Role has grown into a full-fledged media company. [...] Its LinkedIn page lists employees in roles including marketing, business development, photography, editing, and even one person responsible for keeping track of the lore, or details in its fantasy world. "Variety" reported that, , the company has expanded to "about 40 employees (including the eight founders)" and it "has received no funding from outside investors". Productions. The company produces and broadcasts the following shows from its Burbank Studio location: Broadcast. Critical Role Productions primarily broadcasts on the Critical Role Twitch and YouTube channels. This includes both livestreaming and video on demand  (VOD). A number of shows formerly broadcast on Legendary's Alpha service from 2017-19. Podcasts. The "Critical Role" podcast was announced during the 100th episode of the first campaign. It is an audio version of the game sessions. As well as the Critical Role website, the podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play Music, and Spotify. The first campaign's podcast episodes were released in batches of 10–15, between June 8, 2017 and January 8, 2018. "Listened to at 1.5X speed, total listening time of the first campaign would be reduced to a little over 298 hours – at 2X  speed, under 224 hours". The podcast episodes for the second campaign have been released on the Thursday after the episode streamed on Twitch. "Fans often recommend that a listener supplement their experience with strategic viewing of notable visual moments". "Talks Machina" was also released in a podcast format from episode 101 until its conclusion. Like the podcast version of "Critical Role"; there was a week's delay between the broadcast of "Talks Machina" on Twitch, and the corresponding podcast episode's release. Licensed works and related products. "Critical Role"'s commercial success has led to many other related products, including  a prequel comic series "", art books, a novel "", two campaign setting books ("" and "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount"), and an upcoming animated series. Hobby and toy stores sell miniatures and other collectibles related to "Critical Role". Reception. In March 2020, CNBC reported that "since amicably parting ways with Geek & Sundry in 2018, Critical Role has become its own media company, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers across several social media platforms, and more than 120 million views on YouTube. [...] Critical Role has offered a diverse line-up of D&D games. There’s the long-form fantasy campaign that the whole  group participates in weekly and then there are shorter-form series like 'Undeadwood,' a western themed game, that may interest the same fan base, or entice new viewers who are more interested in that genre". By January 2021, Critical Role had 220 million views across the channel with 44,000 paid subscribers on Twitch that month and the first episode of Campaign One had been watched 15 million times on YouTube. During the last 10 months of Campaign Two, between August 2020 and May 2021, Twitch subscriptions averaged around 27,000 paid subscribers. "Business Insider" reported, before the premiere of Campaign Three  in October 2021, that the official Twitch channel had 828,000 followers and 13,530 active subscribers while the official YouTube channel had 1.4 million subscribers. "Variety" reported "historically, C.R.’s Twitch channel has attracted 60,000-75,000 live viewers for each episode. Factoring in on-demand plays on Twitch and YouTube, the total per-episode audience has ranged from 1.2 million to 1.5 million, according to Willingham. In the past 12 months, the audience has grown more than 23% on Twitch and nearly 50% on YouTube year over year. That said, Critical Role remains relatively small compared with other popular creators and  digital media properties: It has 818,000 followers on Twitch (the platform’s most popular streamers have 10 million or more)". Emily Friedman, in the book "Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age: Essays on Transmedia Storytelling, Tabletop RPGs and Fandom" (2021), highlighted that "while "Talks Machina" offers the potential for additional narrative details, its chief appeal is how it creates an informal, even chaotic space for the players within the social frame, and is a mediated space where fans are names and their labor showcased through the intermediaries of Foster and Carr, who are not players but viewers of the show , and who have become beloved in their own right. Other livestreams ("Game Ranch", "MAME Drop") have subsequently leaned into this parasocial pleasure, allowing for more time 'with' the cast". Accolades. The Critical Role channel has won the following awards: Charity involvement. Critical Role Productions and Stephen Colbert teamed up for Red Nose Day for a special one-on-one adventure with Matthew Mercer as Dungeon Master that aired on May 23, 2019. Fans were able to donate to the cause and vote for elements of the adventure such as Colbert's companion, his class, his legendary weapon, and the villain . In the one-shot campaign, Colbert played a half-elf bard named Capo, and had a bee named Eric as a companion. The event raised $117,176.20 for the charity. Critical Role Foundation. Critical Role Productions launched a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Critical Role Foundation, in September 2020 with the mission statement: "to leave the world better than we found it". Ashley Johnson has been named president of the organization with Matthew Mercer, Eduardo Lopez, Rachel Romero, and Mark Koro as officers and board members. Critical Role Foundation states that 85% of donation funds will go to partner non-profits , 10% will be allocated into an emergency fund, and 5% will be allocated to administrative fees and operating expenses. The emergency fund will allow the foundation "to donate funds in the event of natural disasters and other unforeseen events that require immediate humanitarian assistance". CBR reported that "Critical Role Foundation will partner with other organizations in the nonprofit sector that share the same values as "Critical Role" and its community, in addition to raising emergency relief funds to be put toward immediate humanitarian aid as needed". In an interview, Johnson said "We’ve worked with a handful of nonprofits over  the years that focus on causes that "Critical Role" and the community care most about. These charities include 826LA, Red Nose Day, OSD, Pablove and OutRight International, and since we began streaming in 2015, the "Critical Role" community has raised well over half a million dollars for these organizations. [...] We wanted to go the 501(c)(3) route so that donors are able to do tax-deductible donations. [...] CRF is definitely going to have a presence within the wider "Critical Role" world, but it’s going to act as a separate entity tied to the main one". Partnerships have included: Critical Role