Imagine wanting to get into a closed beta for a hot new game, but you have to watch streamers you’ve never heard of or don’t care for just to get a beta key. Does that sound reasonable to you? Or does the thought of sitting through to hours of uninteresting footage and egocentric monologues from someone you hardly know make your skin crawl?
Game companies have good reasons for using streamers to promote their games, but making others who want to play the beta watch streams to get in should stop.
Why Using Streamers Makes Business Sense
From a business perspective, it makes perfect sense to use streamers to promote a game. They reach a wide audience, can have hefty sway in their communities, and frequently rely on topical interests to gain viewership. By simply dispensing exclusive beta keys to choice streamers, a company can slash their marketing costs by getting gameplay footage and advertising in one package.
Riot Games saw massive success promoting VALORANT on Twitch doing this, all without ever paying streamers to play the game. Ubisoft apparently took notice, as now they’re employing the same tactic to promote Hyper Scape. For businesses, any marketing is good marketing, especially if it comes free.
The same principle is true for streamers as well. As long as they have drops enabled, anyone who watches their broadcast has a chance to get an exclusive beta key. This can increase a streamer’s viewership, as well as their potential for paid subscriptions, donations, and even partnerships. Game companies exchange beta keys for exposure and streamers trade exposure for monetary compensation. It seems like a win-win scenario, right?
Not for all the people who don’t want to watch streamers to get into a game’s beta.
The Problem With Live Stream Culture
Twitch, and streaming culture as a whole, have been controversial for a while. Many female streamers struggle to gain validation because of the perceived stereotype of “titty streamers.” And despite many streamers using the platform to spread positivity and activism, it’s a culture that’s come to be defined by its worst actors.
To put it lightly, the streaming community can be incredibly toxic. If the recent charity stream feud has proved anything, it’s how petty streamers can be, how inflated their egos are, and how quickly their fans lap up the reality show-style drama that ensues. This toxic behavior can be emotionally damaging, seen in how one popular streamer, Alinity, confessed to having suicidal thoughts due to the hateful comments she received over her past indiscretions. For some, having to watch live streams for the chance to get a game’s beta key supports cyberbullying, egocentrism, and the exploitation of women and the mentally ill.
For others, though, having to watch livestreams is just a nuisance. It can be difficult to find a streamer with a personality you like, and even then, their streams aren’t always the most exciting. Why should you have to subject yourself to hours or even days of something you don’t like, all in the hopes of playing a game that isn’t even complete? Why can’t companies use other, similarly cost-effective tactics to hype up their games?
What Game Companies Should Do For Anti-Streamers
While it’s not necessarily a bad thing game companies and streamers are working to support each other, there should be an alternative way to market games for those who aren’t interested in watching streams.
Social media, for example, is a highly effective and inexpensive way to reach people. Fans who are interested in an upcoming game, or those who like the games a certain publisher or studio puts out, generally follow their accounts on social media. Companies can use this to their advantage by hosting social media giveaways, like the one Mortal Shell held over the weekend.
(It should also be noted that Mortal Shell recently moved to free open beta due to popular demand.)
Tactics like this could give more people the opportunity to play the game without also forcing them to support something they don’t like. Streamers aren’t the sole providers of free publicity, so they shouldn’t be treated as such. There are other means of promoting a game that many would appreciate instead.
