Inventor of Free-to-Play business model. Game dev 30+ years. Frogdice CEO (video games), Virtual Keystone (consulting), Bluegrass Esports. College professor.
My twitter thread for #
#AssassinsCreedOdyssey
thoughts, reactions, screenshots, video clips, and other nonsense. Valhalla was awesome but so far Odyssey is even better, which is blowing me away.
#AssassinsCreed
(1/???)
Do Streamers/Youtubers generate game sales? Hot topic today so I'll share some tough realities from the game dev side. I have 30 years in this business, 3 games streamed by hundreds of channels of various sizes, and data shared with me from thousands of other game devs. /1
Great point. Losing ~40 court cases pokes too many holes in his farcical claim of election chicanery. He would have been better off conceeding, taking the high road, & beat the fraud drum for his or his sons' campaign. Then again, he is a lazy dummy who fails at everything.
@Acemac79
@PhillyD
Neither he (nor I) included the perp's name, identity, picture, video, or anything else a fame seeker would crave. So I accept your apology. :)
@CDickleg
@CultureCrave
Yeah, that movie where Obi-wan was the main character sucked for that reason. Oh wait, there was no such movie. Main characters need more backstory than side characters. That's the point.
For science I present this photo documenting the juxtaposition between super humbug people that already tossed their tree and the awesome festive folks across the street.
Getting angry about Saudi Arabia and any possible product or sponsorship from them carries very little sacrifice. Try living without products made, paid for, or sponsored by China and suddenly you're having to give up a lot of things you actually like and care about.
i spoke to Dot Esports on why more people within esports spoke up about the Saudi Arabia NEOM sponsorship than they have over China's influence on the scene
We already have a way to express our dislike of a video game: not buying it. I am shocked and appalled by how many of my colleagues are falling all over themselves to support censorship of our art form. This should not be us, at all.
All these people screaming at me because the game is set in the Iraq War--go scream at everyone who made Vietnam games (or movies) or WWII games (or movies). Are we no longer allowed to make art about wars? All war is terrible.
A few years back we did an episode about a flat earther whose plan to find out if the earth truly is round or flat was to singlehandedly built a literal rocket to launch himself into the stratosphere. Anyway, today he finally did it! ...aaand he's dead now
@dakotaz
@BangBangClick
I went into detail on this topic as a game dev with 30 years experience, data from thousands of colleagues, and research I've done as an adjunct professor:
Do Streamers/Youtubers generate game sales? Hot topic today so I'll share some tough realities from the game dev side. I have 30 years in this business, 3 games streamed by hundreds of channels of various sizes, and data shared with me from thousands of other game devs. /1
But when I see the sweeping generalization "Streams sell tons of games! Devs should be eternally thankful anyone streams their game!" I have to call it out for how incredibly inaccurate it is in modern times. Outside the rare viral phenomenon, this just is no longer true. /10
Some games, especially narrative based games, lose a significant amount of their value to streams. Look up "That Dragon, Cancer" & see what the developer said about the impact of streams. When the majority of the game's content can easily be experienced via stream, why buy it? /7
Despite the fact they now drive few sales, you still cannot ignore it. Marketing video games is ridiculously hard. ~10k games launch every year on Steam alone. You have to utilize every avenue out there to get your game discovered. /4
I'll make it easier for you and link an article that has the creator's own words. 14k sales despite millions of Youtube views and similar popularity on Twitch. /8
@leahmcelrath
Thank you so much for this message. My daughter and I volunteered and knocked on doors multiple weekends for Amy McGrath and we're pretty devastated by her close loss here in Kentucky. But Andy Barr was +23 here 2 years ago and barely won +2 today. That is progress.
You can also hope to be one of the handful of lucky games each year that hit the jackpot & go viral because of streams (Among Us). But that takes more than just luck. You have to be the right kind of game for that virality to even be possible. Not every game is like that. /6
@RandolphMarsh
@CameronMcCurry
@ESPNBooger
@minakimes
She blows John Clayton out of the water and is far more interesting while doing it. I dig the others you mentioned but there is room for a wide variety of intelligent voices. Give her a fair shot. She digs deep into the facts and makes some fascinating observations.
From here forward when I say "streams/streamers" that includes Youtube and similar stuff.
Quick summary of what I and other devs have seen generally:
6 years ago: Streams are pretty good.
4 years ago: Streams are kinda meh.
3 years ago to now: Streams drive very few sales. /3
Gaming web sites and magazines lost their impact even sooner than streams, so you have to use everything at your disposal and hope that in the aggregate you can get your game noticed enough to stay in business. /5
Viewer attitudes and expectations have changed and evolved. They are primarily there to be entertained by the streamer and the channel. They aren't in "shopping mode" when they sit down to watch a stream. /12
The relationship between streamers and devs is usually a very positive one. It just isn't the slam dunk at driving sales that many people think it is. Everything evolves and changes, and it does so even faster for video games and streaming. /21
This is a great thread to read and understand what it's like for other people and races here in the US and around the world. MAGA isn't a "side" of an argument: it is a white supremacist death cult.
Hi, Paul here. I'm tied to a bed by a fan of my books that found me after a car crash & she's hurting me since I was going to kill off her favorite character. She just broke my ankles with a sledgehammer but I'm sure with these tips I'll finally have a constructive conversation.
I also teach a class
@EKU
as an adjunct professor "Game Production and Publication." Week 6: "The role of influencers on the video game industry (Twitch, Youtube,social media)." Suffice it to say, I have studied this topic extensively for both business & educational reasons. /2
@CDickleg
@CultureCrave
You know better than the savior of A New Hope. Uh huh.
A well told main character with super powers has an "origin story." Recognize that term? Rey had none. We were robbed of a potentially great character played by a good actress due to garbage story telling and writing.
Many game studios have explicitly granted blanket broadcast rights to streamers. This is not only because there is some value to their games being streamed, but also because they don't want the negative blowback from doing otherwise. We can't all be Nintendo. :P /19
Examples from scattered gamers who claim "I bought my last 5 games because of streams!" don't change the hard facts of sales data. There are too many games, too many channels, too many platforms, and viewers just aren't looking to be sold to. /11
Legally, this issue is interesting (full disclosure: I have a law degree, UGA '98, and practiced law briefly, but gave it up to make video games. No tweets are legal advice.) Buying a game doesn't necessarily/likely give you the right to broadcast it (for profit or otherwise) /18
I have to stress that I'm not saying streams are useless. At
@Frogdiceinc
we have wonderful relationships with streamers and love working with them. In our last 3 games we have even designed some "streamer friendly" game features specifically to enhance streams of our games. /9
@NateSilver538
This was the last straw. Unfollowed. Holy shit Nate Silver abandoned ethics and honesty and just wants whatever gives him the most ad clicks - Trump.
Imagine not understanding the only reason streamers - the sole creators of all value
@Twitch
- are enduring all the losses and tremendous extra stress and work is because incompetent
@eshear
can't make a deal with ASCAP/the struggling music industry.
Games that are already huge (Fortnite) or huge budget games are able to make effective use of big channels because they already have the customers. The streams are just a conduit for getting their message out there (new skins, new event, whatever). /13
With all of the above said, I'm not arguing that streamers should pay a royalty or give a cut of their revenue to the game dev. I'm also not saying something like that is ridiculous or outside the possibility of how future relationships might work. /15
It will only change, and should only change, if it benefits both streamers and devs. I know of at least one "twitch competitor" that has a rev share with game devs as part of its USP (unique selling point). Though we've seen how hard it is for anyone to compete with twitch. /17
Stream channels, like TV channels, need content. Right now they get a large part of that content either for free or for a very small initial cost. That relationship may change in the future - for the benefit of both the game developers AND the streamers. /16
3/ It didn’t come without costs. I gave myself pre-diabetes when working 90+ hr / week in my early 20's. Suffered stress-induced IBS when my first startup went through ups and downs. I’m not saying it’s easy to live this way.
@tha_rami
This may be a sad statement of the world we live in, but it legitimately scares me a little that someone is going to see your screen, think you're hacking the plane, and report you (for other obvious reasons :/). I hate saying this. I hate thinking this. Our world is monstrous.
@RandolphMarsh
@CameronMcCurry
@ESPNBooger
@minakimes
She graduated summa cum laude from Yale. Won a ton of awards as a business journalist for Forbes & Bloomberg. Hired by ESPN the magazine in 2014 when they saw her writing online and knew they needed younger writers who's talent, voice, & passion could drawn in younger audiences.
@CDickleg
@CultureCrave
Did you forget he used to bullseye womp rats in his T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters.
He also had training from Obi-wan and all he did was use the force to help him make a shot.
Seriously. You are just wrong here. Marcia had her narrative on lockdown.
This dude
@J_Ishiro
(with an assist from his wife
@Katapult
) takes on the weirdly growing "anti-big-boob" trend while putting a random internet ignoramus in his place.
@redlianak
has been championing this same point for years.
One of the most awesome, brilliant, & fascinating people you can follow on twitter & youtube is
@RealSexyCyborg
. Learn a TON about tech, but also culture as she shares life experiences from Shenzen, China. Many of us could use a broader education in both!
@tha_rami
We sure Valve is taking the loss? Typically they make developers eat this cost, no? Plus, many will refund to steam wallet. That said: I agree. Huge W by Valve/Steam. I have many criticisms for them from the dev side, but from the gamer/consumer side they almost always deliver.