• by Alex Weprin , February 14, 2018

Machinima, the video game culture and entertainment company owned by Warner Bros., is embarking on a significant brand refresh debuting today (new logo pictured above), intended to highlight how the company has expanded beyond its origins on YouTube to become a cross-platform entity.

“The time had come to express our visual identity and our positioning" by “refining the strategic direction of Machinima, and really starting to return our focus on gamers,” as well as marking just over a year since the company was acquired by Warner Bros.,  Machinima’s GM Russell Aarons told
Digital News Daily.

While Machinima launched in 2000, it really took off after shifting its videos to YouTube in the mid-2000s. Over the past year, the company has expanded its presence across platforms significantly, creating shows for Facebook’s Watch platform, and launching a 24 hour channel on Twitch, the live gaming platform owned by Amazon. The company says it now reaches more than 140 million unique viewers each month.

“It is not that it has been a totally new strategy, but... we want to be on every platform that is relevant to gamers,” Aarons said.

Machinima’s rebrand is also relevant to its pitch to advertisers and distribution partners. “It is a big focus for us to reach advertisers who want to reach millennial men and women, through the lens of gaming,” according to Aarons.

Warner Bros. acquired Machinima near the end of 2016 with the hope of leveraging the company’s social video expertise to its own platforms.

“That is what the acquisition of Machinima was about, to bring.. lower cost, fast and flexible content production into the fold,” Aarons said, citing the company’s support of WB theatrical releases and new comic book series such as “Doomsday Clock.”

In return, Warner Bros. has been “supercharging” Machinima, spreading its content across its platforms, and providing access to its pop culture franchises.

Machinima sits at the intersection of two of the largest trends in digital video right now: esports, and cross-platform distribution of content.

While Machinima does not cover live esports in the same way some competitors do, it is trying to carve out a niche by creating entertainment content surrounding the competitions, such as “Chasing The Cup,” a series that follows competitive gamers as they get ready for their tournaments.