Outside Xbox
British YouTube group known for games commentary and Oxventure.
Outside Xbox, also known as Oxbox, is a British YouTube channel and group founded in 2012, comprising Jane Douglas, Andy Farrant, and Mike Channell. The group is known for video games commentary, journalism, and gameplay, and also hosts the Oxventure real-play tabletop role-playing game series. With a sister channel, Outside Xtra, the combined channels have over 3.8 million subscribers and over 1.9 billion views as of July 2025.
Quick Facts
- Occupation
- YouTubers, Journalists
- Other names
- Oxboxtra
- OxBox
- Oxtra
- YouTube display name
- outsidexbox
- YouTube years active
- 2012–present
- YouTube genre
- Commentary
- Entertainment
- Journalism
- Gaming
- Vlog
- YouTube subscribers
- 2.68 million (outsidexbox); 1.04 million (Outside Xtra)
- YouTube views
- 1.49 billion (outsidexbox); 443 million (Outside Xtra)
Facts from the source article.
History
OutsideXbox started in 2012 under the EuroGamer Network, later renamed Gamer Network, as a site built around Xbox games and its players. The three founders all came from games journalism backgrounds: Andy Farrant had been involved with Inside Xbox in Europe, Jane Douglas had worked at GameSpot, and Mike Channell had written for PC Format and served as UK deputy editor of the Official Xbox Magazine. New faces included Luke Westaway, formerly a senior editor at CNET and a contributor to Nintendo Life, and Ellen Rose, who had worked on the official Xbox channel Xbox On at Attention Seekers. The main channel hit one million subscribers in July 2015. In February 2018, ReedPOP, a RELX Group subsidiary, bought OutsideXbox along with the rest of Gamer Network. Jane Douglas was recognised in 2019 as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the UK games industry for her role at OutsideXbox. On 24 June 2021, Hitman 3 launched special contracts on the Dartmoor map designed by Farrant, Douglas, and Channell, focusing on stealth, poison, and explosions as part of the game’s Season 3 Seven Deadly Sins DLC, specifically Act 3: Season of Sloth. Douglas made cameo appearances as a Sixer in Ready Player One and as a scientist in Jurassic World: Dominion. Outside Xtra reached one million subscribers in June 2023. Luke Westaway announced his departure from the channel on 10 April 2024, with his final video posted on 3 May, though he still appears regularly on the Oxventure channel. In May 2024, IGN, a Ziff Davis subsidiary, acquired Gamer Network.
Oxventure
The Oxventure Dungeons & Dragons campaign kicked off across both OutsideXbox channels in 2017, with Johnny Chiodini serving as Dungeon Master. A podcast version started in August 2020, hosted by Jane Douglas, where old D&D sessions were replayed and other OutsideXbox members joined the conversation. During New York Comic Con x MCM Metaverse 2020, the group ran three virtual sessions of the tabletop RPG Lasers & Feelings on 14 August 2020, 10 October 2020, and 11 June 2021. A Blades in the Dark series, with Westaway as Dungeon Master, began on 8 January 2021. On 27 November 2019, the Oxventure released a music video and single called "Literally Everyone Else in the World," which celebrated Dungeons & Dragons and included Christmas-themed elements. The title came from the Dungeon Master’s job of handling every non-player character, combined with how Chiodini introduced themselves to the audience. Luke Westaway and Andy Farrant wrote the song, with Farrant on bass guitar. All five editors from OutsideXbox and OutsideXtra provided vocals, while CNET editor Andrew Hoyle played drums. Money from the single and its live-streamed premiere went to the UK mental health charity Mind. In 2022, OutsideXbox announced it was hiring a new producer to grow the Oxventure brand, bringing on Zack Fortais-Gomm. That September, the Oxventure relaunched on its own YouTube channel, also called 'Oxventure,' with all previous videos moved there and a new season titled Legacy of Dragons beginning. While Dungeons & Dragons remains the main game, the Oxventure has branched out into other tabletop RPGs. Deadlands got a full series under the 'Oxventure Presents' banner in summer 2023, and other games have been explored through the 'One Shot Wonder' series.
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