A developer is not pleased that Twitch streamers are playing his games, but feels exploited. The streams would get high views, yet he gains little from it.
The title image is a symbolic image and does not represent any of the mentioned individuals.
What is the developer frustrated about? The developer Okuda Kaku, who with his wife owns the game company Kaeru Panda, shared a personal case. A Twitch streamer had over 2 million subscribers on the platform and played his game. This was supposed to mean a significant boost in sales since many people were introduced to his video game this way.
But because the Twitch streamer did not provide a link to the game, the success eluded the developer. Only the streamer could benefit from the game for his stream and the revenue generated from it.
In a posting on X, he writes: “I have personally experienced situations where a game I developed was streamed by a famous streamer and received hundreds of thousands of views overnight. However, there was no purchase link in the video description, so it had absolutely no impact on sales. I felt like I was being exploited and only the streamer benefited. Honestly, I really wish something would be done about it. Seriously.”
A problem without a real solution
What is the solution? Currently, there is no immediate solution, only several ways to potentially address this issue:
- Developer Takayuki Fukatsu suggests on X a revenue share. 5% of the revenue that a player earns by playing a specific video game should go to the developers.
- A provided link to buy the game directly may not always bring much. Many viewers from Twitch streams are primarily viewers and not buyers. A suggestion (from the community on X) would be that developers could charge so-called “streaming fees” for their game, which Twitch streamers would need to pay if they wanted to stream the game.
- Developer Nama Takahashi (via automaton-media.com) believes that content creators should be required to break the game they play into episodes and only upload them piece by piece.
So far, there are only ideas regarding this topic, but no concrete solutions. It remains to be seen whether a system can be created in the near future where both developers and Twitch streamers can benefit.
What do you think about the topic? Do you have a solution proposal? Let us know in the comments!
Another situation in which Twitch streamers benefit much more than the original content creators are reactions. You can read more about this here on MeinMMO: Streamer uses the “money cheat” on Twitch, earns 4,000 euros more than the YouTuber they take content from.
