Streaming has become such a massive entertainment industry and there are several sources to run with when it comes to streaming video games or simply watching content as a viewer. From the likes of Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, you don’t have to search very far before you’re able to get situated for either streaming content or watching. However, one creative director has come voiced an opinion on gameplay streams that has caught some attention online.
To stream video game content, there’s not much that users really have to do. Outside of having the gameplay content ready and the necessary hardware, you can start streaming for free. From there, it’s all about building up your community and eventually earning some profits from viewers that either decides to donate money or wish to support the channel officially through the host service such as Twitch subscriptions.
These subscriptions usually give you some benefits but it looks like there could potentially be a push for these streamers to pay a licensing fee to enjoy the games on their channels. Recently, Twitch made headlines because of the DMCA takedown notices which Twitch enforced by simply automatically deleting the content flagged. This was a surprise to quite a few streamers who were disappointed in the action that resulted in the content being removed rather than an alternative such as allowing the revenue to go out towards the IP holder. Furthermore, the fact that these streamers couldn’t back up their videos in time before they were deleted must sting.
At any rate, streaming, in general, has been a hot topic as of late with one creative director taking to the internet via his Twitter account and expressing his thoughts on games being used to create content. Alex Hutchinson is one of the creative directors for Google Stadia, specifically a Montreal-based studio. According to Alex, streamers shouldn’t be too concerned with the content purge due to copyright music. Instead, they should be more concerned with publishers that opt to enforce a similar takedown request for the content made by the games they didn’t pay for.
Alex went on to say that streamers should have to pay both developers and publishers for a license to play these games on streams. As you can imagine, the response has mainly not been too favorable for this position. Most claim that streaming actually helps the industry more than hurt it as it provides further exposure to the game. It’s a double-edged sword, and we’d love to know your take on the idea of streamers having to purchase a license to stream certain content or potentially forced to share some of the revenue earned by playing video games.
