After building an audience of more than 3.5 million viewers across YouTube and Twitch, Critical Role is hoping some of those folks will follow it off those platforms to its new subscription service, Beacon.
But hold on—if you’re thinking this is a repeat of Watcher‘s recent stumble, CritRole CEO and cast member Travis Willingham is quick to reassure that Beacon isn’t a way for Critical Role to paywall its ongoing content.
“Now, I’m sure many of you are asking, ‘Wait, what does this mean for Twitch and YouTube subscribers?'” he said in Beacon’s announcement video (embedded below). “And the answer is: nothing. Nothing changes for those audiences in how you view our main shows. You will still be able to watch and listen freely, with the same release schedule that it has always been for nine, going on ten years.”
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The point of Beacon, he said, is that the service “allows us the flexibility to create fun additional perks, stay better connected with all of you, and offer a more unfiltered experience.”
It’s also meant to be “the most direct way” to support Critical Role. “Over the years, it has become a huge priority for us to bring more and more of our business in-house,” creative director/cast member Marisha Ray said. “It’s no secret that video platforms have…let’s just say they’ve been through their ups and downs recently. It’s not uncommon for our content to get demonetized because we all have the vocabulary of teenage sailors, or on the extreme other end of the spectrum, we’ll sometimes have ads run in front of our content that don’t really vibe with our beliefs.”
Willingham added that Critical Role went with launching it own service over choosing a site like Patreon because “that would still mean relying on another outside company, which isn’t great for us, and it’s not a direct line between us and you, our audience. And that is where Beacon comes in.”
Beacon costs $5.99/month and will debut several new original and behind-the-scenes series, including: Critical Role Fireside Chat, a monthly live video AMA (starting May 21); Critical Role Cooldown, a weekly post-session chill and chat series where cast members will share their reactions to what just went down (starting with Campaign 3, Episode 83); Critical Role Abridged, an official “distilled” version of weekly campaigns that’s about half the runtime of a usual episode (12 episodes of the Bells Hells campaign available now; more episode to come every Tuesday and Friday); and Re-Slayer’s Take, an audio show that expands the CritRole universe.
Re-Slayer’s Take will “follow the audio escapades of the second-coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria,” per the official show description. “After six misfit mercenaries are rejected from the elite monster hunting group, The Slayer’s Take, they band together as The Re-Slayer’s Take, battling supernatural creatures across the rugged continent of Issylra. Can Idrin, Farah, Heera, Frog, Timpani, and Poogs work together to overcome the plight of The Timberblight and its undead army?”
Re-Slayer’s Take is Critical Role’s first all-ages show, and its cast includes duo DMs George Primavera and Nick Williams, with main cast Jasmine Bhullar, Jasper William Cartwright, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Chiong. It begins airing May 20. Beacon members get access to episode two weeks early; after that, installments deploy to all major podcast platforms.
Beacon subscribers also get early access to ticket sales for events, like the upcoming Bells Hells live show in L.A. June 15.
Critical Role, which has grown from its eight original cast members to a multimedia company with over 65 employees, says the launch of Beacon “is just the beginning” for its next phase of growth.
“Beacon will continue to expand and improve to ensure it delivers the best experience possible for fans everywhere,” it said.
For an idea of just how multimedia CritRole has gotten, check out our recent coverage of its partnership with Matthew Lillard‘s liquor company Find Familiar Spirits: the two partied up to create a limited-edition collectible liquor, Sandkheg’s Hide, that came with a 44-page lorebook and a unique map, all created in-house.
