Changes have continued at Fullscreen as today ScrewAttack changed its name to Death Battle. This comes just days after Machinima, another of Fullscreen’s properties, closed.
The change of name to Death Battle also signifies a more condensed content strategy. The popular Death Battle format, in which two fictional characters are pitted against one another and the team discusses who would win, will be the former ScrewAttack’s sole focus.
The reason for the name change is vague at this time. The description of the Introducing the Death Battle Channel!, a video which announced the move, states, “This channel has to change to keep up with the YouTube landscape,” and the video itself just displays a bunch of comments from ScrewAttack videos that are variations of, “Change the channel name to Death Battle.”
It wasn’t really bad advice from commenters, since looking at the channel’s uploads for the last year shows pretty much nothing but Death Battle uploads punctuated with a top 10 list here and there. However, it seems a bit odd to discard a much-known internet brand name for a generic moniker like Death Battle.
Sad to hear the news about #ScrewAttack closing & changing it to the Death Battle channel. Just 12 days before SA's 13th anniversary.
It was only a matter of time. #RIPScrewAttack
Still gathering thoughts. I'll talk about it in depth tonight at 9pm https://t.co/B86ireWxvd pic.twitter.com/4CWdoJDmMo
— Craig (@CraigSkitz) February 4, 2019
I remember discovering The Angry Video Game Nerd through ScrewAttack, so the channel is a bit near and dear to my heart. However, times change, and the co-founder of ScrewAttack, “Stuttering” Craig Skistimas, took to Twitter to give his thoughts on the situation.
ScrewAttack has been around since before YouTube started, and was at the forefront of the explosion of gaming-centric video channels in the mid-2000s. It’s sad to see the name be discontinued, but at least it lives on in some form or fashion.
