On November 6, 2018, Defy Media abruptly announced they were shutting down and laying off all its employees. Hecox announced that Smosh was "not going anywhere" and that plans were underway to find Smosh a new home. Also following the shutdown, Padilla released a video which went into more detail about his departure from Smosh and his issues with what Defy was doing with their employees and Smosh. He said that he and Hecox sold Smosh to Alloy Digital (which later became Defy Media) for stock, which only had value if the company went public, which never happened. Padilla also expressed dissatisfaction with how Defy treated its employees and stated the company exploited them financially, took over his Facebook page, tried to take over his Twitter account, and prevented him from joining the Screen Actors Guild, and revealed that they had pressured them into starting a fundraiser for "Food Battle: The Game" before it had even been conceived, something that had at the time led to accusations of exploitation being levelled against himself and Ian. He also explained that he had not previously shared this information because of worries that it would threaten the job security of his friends. On November 12, Smosh released an update video reaffirming that Smosh was searching for a new owner, and that in the meanwhile, content would continue to be released independently by the Smosh team. The cast clarified that they still had a significant amount of content from before Defy Media's shutdown in post-production. They also did not rule out the possibility of filming new content and releasing it independently, calling such an idea "old school", alluding to YouTube's early days when content was less commercialized.