Streaming ambivalence: Livestreaming and indie game development

Abstract

Commercial game makers at all scales of production have increasingly come to incorporate livestreaming into every stage of the game development cycle. Mainstream hits like Fortnite and League of Legends owe their ongoing success in no small part to their massive uptake by streamers, and triple-A releases from major publishers can reliably expect significant attention on streaming platforms. But what about smaller, lower budget games? For independent game developers, the costs and benefits of streaming are less clear. Based on interviews with small commercial indie developers in Toronto and Montréal, this article critically examines different discourses around streaming and commercial indie games, focusing on developer perceptions of the benefits and risks of streaming and its impacts on indie game-making practices, including production, promotion, and community-building. Contrary to persistent popular myths about streaming as the key to ‘discoverability’, commercial indie game development remains a precarious form of cultural work, and indie games collectively attract only a tiny fraction of the overall audience on streaming platforms. There is a high level of uncertainty about the factors that led to a given game’s success, leaving many indie developers ambivalent about leveraging influencer attention and even as they commit significant time and energy trying to doing so.

Twitch spouse: Livestreaming and the legacy of spousal labour in the video game industry

“…Twitch and the wider game industry exist codependently. Game streamers are becoming pivotal intermediators between developers, consumers, and advertisers across the global game supply chain (Johnson & Woodcock, 2019b; Parker & Perks, 2021). With the rise of Twitch streaming and gaming video on-demand in the home, both audiences and researchers can increase their capacity to witness the game industry’s dependency on work outside the studio in real time.…”

Effects of Twitch Streaming Towards the Video Games Developers in the Industry

“…This can be viewed as true with some particular type of games such as single player or story driven based games as viewers are already exposed to the full content through streaming as stated ". For certain kinds of games, the impact of streaming is seen as largely negative, benefitting streamers and the platform more than developers, which has implications for what developers consider commercially feasible" (Parker & Perks, 2021) However, on the other side of the spectrum, it can also be said that smaller video game companies can benefit from streaming platforms in that it can be a source of free online promotion. Successful streamers already have a following and are continuously growing their followers each day.…”

“…Successful streamers already have a following and are continuously growing their followers each day. Streamers like Ninja who has 18 million followers and an average viewer count of 300,000 per stream can help the smaller video game company to promote their games freely or cheaply by providing the streamer a free copy of the game to play on their platform as stated "having a game streamed in sufficient numbers can improve discoverability on digital distribution platforms thanks to increased searches and wishlisting" (Parker & Perks, 2021) Research Objective Research objectives serve as the base for understanding the purpose of the research as well as narrowing down the target of the research. By answering the research objectives, the research will be able to conduct an analysis and an understanding to the purpose of the research.…”