The Twitch streamer Asmongold was tricked in a new stream. He advertised the shooter Escape from Tarkov. The spot reached 50,000 viewers on his channel, thus reaching a new target audience.
Who are the parties involved? Apparently, two parties were involved in this stunt:
- This is Asmongold, a Twitch streamer. He was the number 1 on Twitch in September thanks to WoW Classic, with the most viewed hours
- And a Twitch account named “Escape from Tarkov” – which was initially thought to belong to BattleState Games, the developers of the hardcore shooter “Escape from Tarkov”
Media-Share Stream was the occasion
This is how the trick worked: Asmongold made a stream on October 24. There, viewers could donate so that Asmongold would show a clip and react to it live.
The supposed developers donated $40. Asmongold therefore showed a clip of Escape from Tarkov: the trailer for Patch 0.12. Fans are excited about the update, which is expected to come next week.
This is how Asmongold reacted: The streamer initially seemed pleased with the clip, watched with interest, and contemplated aloud about trying the game.
But then someone shouted in the voice chat: “Wait, that’s a developer donation.” Because the donor was listed as “Escape from Tarkov”.
“Is this the meta now?”
Asmongold looked puzzled at the camera and murmured somewhat dejectedly: “What? Oh, guys. Is this now the meta to play a big ad spot for maybe $40 in front of almost 50,000 people?”
However, he wasn’t really angry. Asmongold says he will play Escape from Tarkov if it’s good – it looks like a “PUBG in long format”.
People on reddit say: Shameless – but really clever
This is what’s behind it: Normally, developers pay thousands of dollars when they want a big streamer like Asmongold to showcase their game. Twitch has become an important advertising platform for gaming companies.
On reddit this is seen with appreciation, as it was a shameless but clever move. If just one of the 50,000 viewers buys the game, the developers would recoup the money spent on the ad spot.
One wonders: Why don’t more developers actually do this?
Developers say: We weren’t involved at all
Update 25.10.: What do the developers say? Asmongold’s clip made waves overnight.
However, the developers deny that they are behind the Twitch account that made the donation. The COO of Battlestate Games, Nikita Buyanov, said this morning (via reddit):
I wasn’t it, and no one from the company was.
An other employee says she double-checked and can now confirm: it was not from them. At the moment, they do not know who placed the ad.
