Markiplier Launches Interactive Sci-Fi Adventure ‘In Space,’ One of YouTube’s Last Originals

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTop creator Markiplier — more than two years after his first YouTube-funded interactive special hit the video platform — is finally back with his next choose-your-own-adventure-style project: sci-fi action-comedy “In Space With Markiplier.”Markiplier (real name: Mark Fischbach) is one of YouTube’s highest-earning and most popular creators, with 32.5 million subscribers. “In Space With Markiplier” is among YouTube’s last original productions: It shut down the original content group earlier this year but committed to completing and releasing shows that it had already contracted for.About five hours after its release Monday, “In Space With Markiplier” (watch at this link) had garnered more than 1.4 million views.

Viewers interact with “In Space With Markiplier” from the perspective of the captain of a spaceship that is carrying passengers to a new life on a faraway planet — before disaster strikes and the vessel begins to spiral into chaos.

Markiplier is the ship’s head engineer and loosely guides you through time, space and misadventures as everyone tries to manage the “warp core” and get the ship safely back on course.

Viewers are presented with at least two choices at the end of each video leading them down multiple non-linear paths and story conclusions.YouTube first announced in June 2020 that it had ordered a second interactive special from Markiplier.