Stadia creative director says streamers should pay game devs; Google disagrees

[Puiu]

The only reasonable solution to this could be for Twitch to implement a system/program where the streamer can, by his own will (aka: optional), send to the devs that join this program a small percentage of the income.

Big streamers could send 1-2% of what they make on twitch while being able to advertise this little fact on their stream page (kinda like how it shows when drops are enabled).

 

[CrisisDog]

Most of the time, my kids have no motivation to actually play a video game. Instead, they watch it from a popular streamer. So, I can kind of see the point on this. I’ll also throw in that a PvP shooter is more like watching a sports game; the results can be random and unpredictable, and someone may purchase a copy if it looks fun. However, streaming something like an RPG that kind of has linear gameplay, would be more like watching a movie, and also demotivate a purchase once they saw the whole story.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Alex thinks these streamers should pay for the game if they want to stream it....?

What's the harm in that? I'd agree with him. Pay for what you want.

Streamer pays for early access for a game key/copy to stream a game and build hype/support for the developer.
Streamer spends $50-100 (whatever the going cost is) for first access to the game. Thus the Developer gets paid for their work.
Streamer has people that actively subscribe to watch them stream - Streamer still gets their pay day.

Streamers are upset they might have to pay for something?

 

[quadibloc]

My gut reaction is to be strongly against it.
There are very successful streamers out there, making a very good living from just playing video games, and it's not unreasonable to think that they should be giving something back to the games they're playing besides free advertising.
But for every streamer out there who is making a fortune from ads because of being wildly popular, there are many who are just starting out and who likely never will make any real money. I tend to think that it's very likely that any scheme by which people who stream pay extra money to the game developer is going to impact them too, and possibly kill streaming as a result.

 

[Nicromancer]

Except that never happens. An increase in viewers on twitch or youtube directly correlates to an increase in sales.

What are you talking about? I am exactly one of those people who actually skip buying the games and enjoying watching people play the whole thing and pretending I played it. For titles like death stranding, FFVII Remake, recent Tomb Raider series, I didn't pay a cent and just watch some streamers play till the end. I guess the situation really depends on the type of the game. If it is a story based game, walk-thought like videos totally destroy my intention to buy the game. I can simply enjoy the stories and graphics in a more flexible way than playing the game myself. I can watch it on a bus, in a toilet. I can also skip the boring part or repeat an interesting part. The moment I started watching the videos, the game value start to decrease because I already enjoyed/consumed the parts I watched.
On the other hand, for games that require player skills, game videos sometimes (but not always) boost my desire to own the game. e.g. MOBA like League of Legend, Dota, and some RTS games. Those game are supposed to be played again and again. Videos on those games helps highlight the attractive part of the game. The more I watch, I higher chance I want to try them myself.
My point is, game videos on twitch/youtube, is a double sword and not always boost sales.

 

[defaultname365]

Why need to pay more to game devs? Makes no sense. You already paid full price for the game, and now you're "broadcasting" want you're doing with what you paid for. This is absolute rubbish.

 

[jpuroila]

I don't know which side is right, but I do know that I would be strongly inclined to not buy anything from any publisher that tries to actually demand royalties from streamers.

Alex thinks these streamers should pay for the game if they want to stream it....?

What's the harm in that? I'd agree with him. Pay for what you want.

Streamer pays for early access for a game key/copy to stream a game and build hype/support for the developer.
Streamer spends $50-100 (whatever the going cost is) for first access to the game. Thus the Developer gets paid for their work.
Streamer has people that actively subscribe to watch them stream - Streamer still gets their pay day.

Streamers are upset they might have to pay for something?

Streamers already purchase the games they stream(when the developer doesn't give them keys to get free publicity). Alex is arguing that they should pay royalties(presumably as a percentage of their earnings or per view) on top of that.