Goodbye PLUTO

December 1st, 2024

Around April 2015, I built a brand new YouTube Channel under the nickname 'Hwanglyong'. This channel was sloppy, I started uploading videos edited with a free mobile app and played illegally obtained games. Hell, there were no thumbnails or copyright recognition! It was something I was really embarrassed! A long the same time span, I met the TE. Like many before me, I "allegedly" accessed it unintentionally. To my surprise, the Network of TE I accessed at the time had 120,000 of members already exceeded in there. At that time, I joined that TE and experienced amazing stuff for the first time. This was really early days of TE V2, hell, there was no integrated system for mining and no multifle factions world. In many ways this was a lot more fun with pure heart.


As time went on, I left the TE and stopped YouTube but took everything I had leared from them with me. After around three months of not really touching Youtube, on July 27, 2015, I really started YouTube channel again under the nickname '*****'s Music Video', it became to try attract a lot of subscribers then. Back then no knowledge of copyright, there were no professional editing skills, this means in some of time, I could put at risk my channel. In real-time, the copyright claim declared or it took like just a seconds all the videos were deleted. Tons of fun. I decided to learned about the copyright and changed my nickname to 'MusicDragon' so that the channel is not deleted so even if copyright claim was received, my channel did not. Remember, at that time knowing about copyright is rare for a Youtube. The creation of MD started with a tort!


The name "Music Dragon" was not going to be the final name; it was a placeholder that I launched gaming channel until i got a better name. However, MD grew at a crazy rate and the name stuck. MD is six years old... It was rare to even see a channel last a year or two but we pushed through and kept true to what MD was all about. Think about it. Since day one, MD was a music youtube channel all the way to the end.


Around 5 years ago, my channel was taking a turn that was dark and directed by me. My channel subscribers started to get fall and I set a date for my predicted departure from MD. That was only in fact 4 years from now, really I'm surprised we got this far before making the call. Two years ago, I noticed the start of trends and predicted the worst.


MD got to a point where we lost a large chunk of the subscriber base from a gaming content issue that could not be resolved. Right after that, I got banned from TE and took a massive hit. However, at the same time, my two contents also started falling. I knew that my current path was not sustainable. I put plans into action. I started playing PUBG, with the goal of debutting MD into pro gamer. That would cover my problems with gaming content helping with subscriber retention. PUBG was to also to help combat another issue I don't have control over. If you change own PC and name, you would have noticed change of IP from them and could join TE. Channel that used 'MusicDragon' now changed 'PLUTO'.


TeamExtreme has always been at the forefront of my content. We build more contents than most contents, regardless of the growth my channel. I have loved owning PLUTONIA and being its faction leader. We have built simply amazing stuff. But all good things must come to the end.


TE has become so hard to operate, it was closed just to economic problems. Each PUBG team was active also became self-destructive just to be able to convenience of the company. For example, TheGrardHunterz was a formal pro E-Sports team but disbanded because drop out of the league qualifier only once. The follow-up teamTheHardHunterz was disbanded because the profit was zero as an amateur team. This is not including another team operated for the amatuer team before TheGrandHunterz.


What does all this mean? Well PLUTO has a super refined, well everything. From the live, to editing, to operations skill playing across the game. The downside? Editing and broadcasting at the same time is very complex and hard. This means broadcasting at Youtube or Twitch would take another 3-4 hours to do, operating Youtube channel. I actually broadcasted at Youtube that let you see my game play.


I have never made a profit from anyone, just show my videos to random people, here and there. As a result most people don't even remotely understand the fact that it is operating at a loss as money. They just have wrong assumptions. Nonetheless pushing out something so defict is not viable. My life parters have grown so much in real life. I paused Youtube channel and unsubscribed all unneeded paid programs. Even then I still needed ₩600,000 every month. This only included monthly recurring costs, this does not account for annual and unpredictable or random costs like problems (chargebacks, tax, business trip costs and much much more). Supporting anything has a cost to it.


I looked at other options for PLUTO, like pivoting towards monetization. However, PLUTO has stayed true for six years. I don't spam the comment with advertisements, put ads on the videos or sites, and I have always done two things. Staying away from the dangers around me, even if I drop out of high school. The other thing? Protecting my parters by focusing on true life.


I can't express how much I have loved working on Youtube. The people here, the friends I've made. It’s really something that is hard to describe. I'm not one for making essay posts and I'm not much of social person but for six years, you have been my family. To the Staff of PLUTO: every assistant, companions, Peulteu, and Neon has personally earned my respect and trust. We don't do public recruitment and as you all know, you must be asked to join. Please know, I'm honored you were a part of me. You guys made PLUTO what it is; I could not have done it without you. I don't want to give individual shoutouts because there are far too many. You know exactly who you are, you're my jewels. To the Youtube community: you are a wacky, wide range of people I call my friends. I’m happy you came along for this long ride. I had a lot of fun talking and playing games with you. I know some of you are still here from TeamExtreme or even before that. When you think about that, it’s pretty awesome.


Over the next few days, PLUTO will start to come down and be retired. This means that the most videos will go private. Quite some time after that, the SNS and blog will follow. Channel itself and sites will stay up for now. Now, don’t worry, most of PLUTO's videos will be available to watch. You can do what you like with them without restrictions. I would consider them publicly owned :-) *Link coming soon*


It's been a pleasure and I thank you all for joining me in this journey. I always have new ideas and projects planned. I'm sure one day a lot of us will meet again.


-  PLUTO

I don't care if heaven won't take me back

Nov 16th, 2021