If you are having a hard time accessing James Rolfe’s famous “Angry Video Game Nerd” episodes via YouTube, you are not alone. Apparently, earlier this morning, the YouTube account of “the angriest gamer you’ve ever heard” has been terminated, according to YouTube, due to “repeated or severe violations of their Terms of Service”. It is currently unknown as to what the exact violations are at this time, and it is currently unknown if the situations regarding the account cutoff will be resolved.

As we live in a world of fast breaking news, already, rumors are starting to pop up all over the internet. Lately, it’s hasn’t been uncommon to see entire YouTube channels being removed thanks to a recent bombardment of copyright infringement notices being sent out from Sega in regards to content of the “Shining Force” series of games, so random third party claims from such publishers are the main suspect at the moment. Other possibilities such as music copyrights and the like could also be to blame. Of course, we at RGN like to focus more on facts, so we will be updating this post periodically as we learn of additional information, hopefully directly from James himself. His YouTube account had been previously shut down back in 2008, for nearly 24 hours following a mistake by one of the sites he partners with to display his videos.

Of course, you can always check out Angry Video Game Nerd videos (as well as a plethora of other excellent original video features), directly at the Cinemassacre Productions website, at http://www.cinemassacre.com at any time.

(1:45pm Update: It appears that the JamesAngryNerd channel on YouTube has been fully reinstated. However, James Rolfe’s second channel, Cinemassacre, is still offline, with the same “TOS” violation message. We will continue to monitor, and keep everyone updated on the situation.)

(3:30pm Update: Needless to say, there is still a lot of speculation about what the cause of the YouTube accounts temporary suspension was in the first place. While we are big on facts around here at RGN, with a screen grab found on Reddit and some personal research, it appears that a YouTube user going by the name Tcbys1 may have had a partake in the situation, due to their disagreement with what is now being called “The Cheetahmen Incident”. For those that are unaware, the current owners of Active Enterprises (who is the company that created the Action 52 and Cheetahmen NES titles, in which James Rolfe featured as the AVGN), started a Kickstarter project to do an official reprint of the cartridge. James and a few others did a video promo for the project, and the public for one reason or another were outraged by the promotion, going as far as calling the entire situation a scam. Of course, it was not a scam, for the Kickstarter project was a success, with videos of unboxing the reproduction cartridges being views on the internet. We will let you know when and if the second channel goes back online.)

(Jan. 9 @ 1:00pm Update: All systems are clear, Houston. All channels are back online.)