Summary
Hardcore is a web series hosted by the YouTuber Austin Hargrave, who is known under the online alias PeanutButterGamer (PBG). He and his brother, Stewart Hargrave (McJones), co-created the series in 2012. It began with the release of the first season, Minecraft #1, which had its first episode released on July 23, 2012.
Premise
The premise of the series is that a group of players (typically 7) must work together to accomplish a goal in a video game (e.g. defeating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft), with the catch being that if a player dies at any point during the game, they can’t come back and are eliminated from the series. Players also can’t talk after they die in order to preserve viewer immersion.
To help the viewer keep track of who’s alive, in danger, and dead, an overlay containing portraits of each of the cast members is edited on the screen.
In order to give the viewer an easier time identifying them in the game, cast members also use unique player skins whenever the season’s game is Minecraft.
History
In the original Hardcore series, the main cast members were PBG, Jeff Fabre (SpaceHamster), Dean Elazab, and Barry Kramer. McJones and Jared Knabenbauer (ProJared) were former main cast members. The series also featured a variety of guests, including Jon Jafari (JonTron), Ross O’Donovan (RubberRoss), and Jim Caddick (Caddicarus).
There were a total of 15 full-length seasons in the original series: 7 Minecraft seasons, 3 Terraria seasons, 2 MineZ seasons, 1 DayZ season, 1 Diablo II season, and 1 Starbound season. There was also 1 Hardcore Shorts season (now commonly referred to as “mini season”) of the game Mount & Blade Warband: Napoleonic Wars. All of these seasons can be found listed here.
For the first 5 seasons, PBG was the main video editor of the series. This changed with the release of Minecraft #3, which is when SpaceHamster became the main editor. After Minecraft #4 finished releasing in May 2015, the series went on a nearly 2-year hiatus, returning in December 2016 with the release of Minecraft #5. This return brought on some major changes to the series, most notably a change in editors from SpaceHamster to Todd Cameron (who, as of now, has edited all the seasons past Minecraft #4) and the introduction of drawn portraits for the cast members by the artist Krooked Glasses.
The last season released in the original Hardcore series was Minecraft #7. After Minecraft #7 finished its release in January 2019, the series went on hiatus for another couple years.
On May 19, 2021, in a video titled ”Minecraft - PBG,” PBG announced that both Hardcore would be returning on the NormalBoots YouTube channel and a new season was releasing, that season being Minecraft. Since the end of the NormalBoots’ Minecraft season in July 2021, no further Hardcore seasons have been released. Given the status of NormalBoots and the fact that PBG has become a father since the end of the last season, it’s unlikely that the series will return soon or even ever, though PBG has hinted at a potential return in the past.
(If you want to know why McJones is blurred, then just take a look at his Twitter profile, and you'll find out pretty quick.)How I Found Hardcore
The way I found the Hardcore series is pretty odd. I found it in the year 2017 when I was 7, possibly 6 years old. My sister and I used to play this Wii game called Wipeout: The Game a lot as kids. The ragdoll physics in that game were incredibly funny, and we’d always die laughing whenever we played it. Since I enjoyed the game so much, I decided to look it up on YouTube and see if anybody had made content on it, and people had indeed done so. The first result was ”RAGDOLL PHYSICS! - Wipeout (Part 1)” by PBGGameplay, and I clicked on it. Even though I had a hard time remembering who was who, I quickly fell in love with the humor of the two dudes running the show, “PB” and “Jeff.”*
When I clicked on their channel, the featured video was part 1 of Minecraft #5.* Curious as to what this series was, I decided to check it out. I ended up really enjoying the first part of the series and watched the whole thing over the next few days.* The rest is pretty much history. I watched Terraria #3 as it was coming out, along with MineZ #2 and Minecraft #6. I actually didn’t fully finish Starbound despite being there for its release because, respectfully, that season was a snoozefest. I was, of course, also there for the return of Hardcore and the release of NormalBoots’ Minecraft season in 2021. Despite that season being pretty unpopular in the Hardcore community, I actually enjoyed it, though I’d probably fall asleep watching it now.
*This detail may be a little off or flat out made up because this happened so long ago and at such a young age.
Why I Love Hardcore
To keep it brief, I love the Hardcore series because of the endless hours of entertainment it’s provided me with and the wonderful community of people it introduced me to (more on that on the Community page). If I never found Hardcore, I genuinely think I’d be a very different person, and I’ll always be grateful for being able to find this series.