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Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

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Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#51

Post by duaneb »

andreasklinger wrote: post #3
dexwiz wrote: post #2

Amazon bought two things with Twitch: 1) A social community 2) a monetization model. The video service itself is secondary. The past several years has shown the social communities grow organically. But its hard to make users adopt one. If you build it, they probably won't come. It's easier for a big company to buy one up than start one from scratch. (Think Instagram versus Google Plus). Second, Twitch is one of the f…

Two additional aspects: 1) Twitch can leverage the core support network that amazon can build Starting from aws - to prime video subscriptions 2) amazon will go strong into tv top as soon as apple and google take it more serious. at that point the got one of the bigger kinds of content under control - similar w/ google and youtube

What makes you think appletv will ever support Amazon video?

The iOS app definitely needs chrome cast support.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#52

Post by duaneb »

alexandre_m wrote: post #33

This whole industry of game streaming is operating in a gray zone. It's a matter of time before we see some big lawsuits against the streamer and streaming platforms which make a lot of money by publishing the whole content, without any royalties to game developers /publishers. For certain games. it doesn't spoil or ruin the fun factor for viewers, but some others it just removed the incentives to buy a copy of the g…

Why do you think content owners would see this as IP theft rather than free advertising? Are people watching play throughs rather than playing it themselves?

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#53

Post by esturk »

alexandre_m wrote: post #33

This whole industry of game streaming is operating in a gray zone. It's a matter of time before we see some big lawsuits against the streamer and streaming platforms which make a lot of money by publishing the whole content, without any royalties to game developers /publishers. For certain games. it doesn't spoil or ruin the fun factor for viewers, but some others it just removed the incentives to buy a copy of the g…

That's no different where Twitch streamers upload their entire play through a chunk at a time onto Youtube.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#54

Post by overcast »

esturk wrote: post #53
alexandre_m wrote: post #33

This whole industry of game streaming is operating in a gray zone. It's a matter of time before we see some big lawsuits against the streamer and streaming platforms which make a lot of money by publishing the whole content, without any royalties to game developers /publishers. For certain games. it doesn't spoil or ruin the fun factor for viewers, but some others it just removed the incentives to buy a copy of the g…

That's no different where Twitch streamers upload their entire play through a chunk at a time onto Youtube.

Correct, and Nintendo already puts the lockdown on that hardcore.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#55

Post by swyman »

hoodoof wrote: post #34

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 p…

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.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#56

Post by jsnell »

hoodoof wrote: post #34

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 p…

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.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#57

Post by alexandre_m »

Buttons840 wrote: post #41
alexandre_m wrote: post #33

This whole industry of game streaming is operating in a gray zone. It's a matter of time before we see some big lawsuits against the streamer and streaming platforms which make a lot of money by publishing the whole content, without any royalties to game developers /publishers. For certain games. it doesn't spoil or ruin the fun factor for viewers, but some others it just removed the incentives to buy a copy of the g…

The most popular games on Twitch are not story driven though.

My comment wasn't only targeting Twitch, nor only live streaming.

Just take for example all those YouTube channels where you can access a replay of a whole game on demand.

I just did a couple of weeks ago with the latest Resident Evil HD remaster because I was fond of this game I played back in 1996.

I thought about buying a copy. I wanted to revisit it. Well not anymore. I just skipped through the important cinematics and storyline for some hours, up to the game ending.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#59

Post by nommm-nommm »

overcast wrote: post #54
esturk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's no different where Twitch streamers upload their entire play through a chunk at a time onto Youtube.

Correct, and Nintendo already puts the lockdown on that hardcore.

Since when? I've never had a problem finding Mario play throughs.

EDIT: Just did a sanity check search, Mario Kart 8 playthrough, been up for 2 years, a million and a half views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0l84gjEXg

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#60

Post by voxic11 »

hoodoof wrote: post #34

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 p…

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.
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