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Comment by hoodoof | Hacker News Reader

Game developers don't have any option except to restrict public display of their games in some way.

There are now plenty of people who enjoy watching but not playing games.

Game developers need revenue for this firstly because they deserve it, having made the entertainment, but secondly because former players are now just watchers and not paying money, reducing revenue.

My guess is that games developers will permit public display of a restricted part of the game, like level one only, and will require royalties for display of other sections of the game

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The vast majority of game developers are going exactly the opposite route. They won't add restrictions. In fact they'll spend a decent chunk of their design and development resources on coming up with ways to make sure the games are streamed more. Because it's the most cost effective marketing channel available today. Maybe the only cost effective one. And in the words of one game publisher, "The biggest challenge we have today isn’t making great games, it’s making sure people even know they exist".

There are some exceptions, of course. Nintendo are the big one (they have a truly draconian standard contract required to stream their games). But there's at most a handful of indie developers who are opposed to streaming. To the extent that it's actual news when it happens.

> a restricted part of the game, like level one only,

Which kinds of games do you think constitute the vast vast majority of Twitch viewership? Because it's not the type of games which have a "level one".

https://www.twitch.tv/directory

Personal anecdote incoming: I don't buy as many games as I used to as a teenager/college student, but the ones that I do spend money on now are the ones I see on Twitch.

Game developers do need the revenue, but they don't deserve it simply because they created a game. The market determines what a game is worth - and the amount of effort, time and money sunk into a game can, but often may not, factor into that valuation.

Restricting free expression isn't going to bring game developers more revenue, it's just going to increase piracy and damage the developers' reputation. Like it or not, this isn't something developers have any say in or control over.

Maybe, though streaming seems to me like more of a form of free marketing for these publishers than anything. Watching a game being played several times over will probably turn into a sale for a lot of people (though not everyone).

If you have a multiplayer game and want to make some money from the streams, it would be smart to host your own tournament and sell ads through it rather than charging royalties. Otherwise, streamers are doing your product a huge favor through exposure.

It depends on what type of games.

Games like Dota2, Call of Duty, etc. require some strategy and will be a different experience each time (especially on multiplayers).

If you think about "Beyond two souls", well not that much.

On the other spectrum, you also have to consider copyright infringement and royalties as a problem on its own. Why should some individuals make money by reproducing the content (totally in some cases) without having to pay any royalties at all?

Am I allowed to stream the latest Star Wars with me in the corner making comments along?

Movie is passive and game is active, to some extent yes, but for how long can we disassociate both mediums in terms of IP?

Maybe some games. But at the moment most popular games are actually investing development resources into integrating twitch support right into the game to make it even easier to stream. The huge network effects you get from having a popular game on twitch seem to outweigh the 'costs' of people streaming it without paying the publisher.

I think it's funny that people downvote because they don't like what they read even if its true.

Put yourself in the shoes of the game developer who puts everything on the line to develop a game that thousands of people watch but the developer gets no revenue for.

Thousands of people watch -> word of mouth marketing -> people who wouldn't have heard of the game now know it, and might buy it

No people watch -> nothing happens -> nothing happens

>Put yourself in the shoes of the game developer who puts everything on the line to develop a game that thousands of people watch but the developer gets no revenue for.

Has this _ever_ happened?

Yea pretty sure if you get the point where you have thousands or tens of thousands of viewers on Twitch, your game is already very successful.

Thousands of people hear about the game and that it is pretty okay -> Steam sale/Humble Bundle -> People think they are getting a deal -> PROFIT!

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