Phil Burnell/History

History
Phil posted up videos on YouTube originally just for fun from 2008 to 2010, and didn't expect it to become his full-time job at that time. He made YouTube his full-time job in late 2010, after being laid off from Helicopter Support, Inc. in Trumbull, CT. His original YouTube channel "darksydephil" lost its AdSense partnership in late 2010; he then moved his content to blip.tv, but due to a number of users submitting complaints to the blip.tv staff regarding Phil's anti-Semitic jokes during the Dead Space 2 demo, he was banned. He got signed with Machinima in 2011. From 2011-2012, Phil was involved in stopping bills against gaming, such as SOPA. He got his contract with Machinima renegotiated in late 2012 and began making less money than he was at the time he got partnered, and he made changes to his content. He recorded his gameplay from 2008-early 2013 by pointing an HD camera at his TV screen, and around spring of 2013, Phil started to direct capture his gameplay. Phil then started recording gameplay in 1080p and 60 FPS in 2014 when he bought a new PC, replacing his other one that was built for him.

Phil had very good views on most of his videos from 2008 to around 2012, but his views overall have declined over the years because of the negativity and because of other YouTubers who do edited gaming videos who are bigger and better than him. In 2012, Phil posted up a video regarding people who claim that he has "changed". Negativity grew strong around Phil in 2013, and the negativity still continues to this day. Phil wanted to make more changes in 2014, one of which included moving out of CT, which he did in June of that year. Phil live-streamed on Twitch for about a year and a half, but after Twitch staff told Phil in November 2014 to reduce his streaming rate while playing Assassin's Creed: Unity, Phil quit streaming from the site and started streaming on YouTube. He created an account on Patreon in early 2015, which has since gained a mixed response from his viewers.

Phil was swatted on June 24, 2015, during a livestream of Batman: Arkham Knight; however, no one was harmed or arrested. He was also DDoSed on June 26. Phil was attacked multiple times throughout 2015 by his haters/detractors, including getting false copyright strikes on his two main channels for fanart that he supposedly had the rights to use. He also couldn't live-stream for certain periods of time. To stop more issues, Phil decided not to accept anymore fanart, and he deleted hundreds of videos that had fan-created content included in them, and also privated his Nintendo DS playthroughs. Not long after, his views began to drop. An anonymous source told Phil that YouTube had changed its system and when the videos were removed, his total views dropped, thus lowering his rank in the search engine. Phil was outraged by this and even considered suing YouTube. He also got his contract with Machinima renegotiated not long afterwards (for the second time) and began making less money. He also posted up an update video on this subject.

Phil then announced a new channel for 2016 as part of a 'three pronged plan' (gaming/vlogs/edited content) to move forward. He opened his new channel called KOGaming in early 2016, where he would do his game reviews and edited content, so those who do not subscribe to him out of fear of getting their inbox flooded or those who lack the time to watch his entire playthroughs can enjoy his content.

Phil was caught masturbating live on pre-stream with facecam on May 1, 2016 before he was going to stream gameplay of the Nioh Alpha Demo. He claims that he didn't know that the camera was on. Ever since that pre-stream went live, he gained more viewers and subscribers; however, many YouTubers now make jokes about him masturbating, and the negativity seems to have gotten worse. Other big YouTube channels have covered this incident, such as ReviewTechUSA and DramaAlert. Phil addressed the situation directly in a pre-stream video the following day. Phil will bring up the incident every once in awhile. A video where Phil bashed the game Homefront: Revolution went viral online (including on 4chan) and now has over 1 million views. He also got thousands of new subscribers on his KOGaming channel.

Phil posted up a "addressing state" video on August 22.Phil has announced in October 2016 that he is nervous about his future, due to low views during that Hardcore Gaming Season.He further explained the situation in The Week-In Preview, and then in a special vlog. Low views continue to this day; all of this traces back to the copyright attacks from summer 2015, because Phil's rank in the search engine hasn't changed too much. Phil also made a follow-up video to the special vlog. On November 16, Phil posted up a business update video regarding the future of his live-streams, and he said he can accept fanart again because YouTube has a more tolerable copyright system. Phil has also stated that he will not live-stream as much anymore. On November 21, OBS crashed on Phil, deleting all of his settings that he had written down two years ago. He then tested out OBS Studios and he returned to live-streaming on Twitch on November 29 for the first time in 2 years to stream gameplay of Final Fantasy XV. He will continue to stream on Twitch now instead of YouTube.

Phil has announced that he wants to implement changes for 2017. He released another business update video, and he is still nervous about the future. He also downgraded his gaming videos from 1080p 60fps to 720p 60fps. Also on KOGaming, Phil has decided to accept edited videos from his viewers, calling it a "Community submission". He also uploaded the very first officially approved "This Is How You Don't Play" video on KOGaming, but it was taken down later. He plans to release other videos like this in the future. Phil also changed his schedule, streaming an hour earlier each day and decided to try and take certain days off with his then-girlfriend Leanna.

Recently, Phil has been having a fiasco with ad avenue, and it has led to him almost wanting to file a lawsuit against YouTube, because he is losing money. He is possibly deemed as "advertiser unfriendly" and he talked with Machinima about the situation. They suggested that he should upload shorter videos like back in the old days, which Phil wasn't too sure about. On March 2, Phil revealed that he was layed off by Machinima after a six year long partnership with them. Phil also has opened a Teespring page. Phil got a Nintendo Switch on launch day, but unfortunately it bricked. He is currently talking with other companies for partnership, and also revealed that his YouTube channels are being "messed with".

In April of 2017, Phil proposed to Leanna and she reportedly accepted it, but in May of 2017, Phil and Leanna broke up and she moved out. In November that same year, he confirmed he was in another relationship.

In February 2018, Phil introduced his new girlfriend, Kat.

In July 2018, Phil's main channel DSPGaming became demonetized due to a problem with AdSense, forcing him to move and continue his playthroughs on KOGaming, which was the channel he used for edited reviews and montages, but became largely dormant in 2017 due to low views and income. However, on August 7, 2018, monetization was restored on DSPGaming, and Phil has since then moved back and resumed his video game playthroughs on the channel, with Phil stating that now all future uploads will now be in a longer format.

On April 10, 2019, Phil officially revealed that he and Kat got married.

On May 18, 2020, Phil revealed that he and Kat divorced and Kat took Jasper to live with her family.