On Thursday, Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director @ Google Stadia had an interesting take on Twitter, and despite how absurd it is in these modern times to say that, he’s not necessarily wrong!
So to get right toi the point here are his twteets:
Streamers worried about getting their content pulled because they used music they didn't pay for should be more worried by the fact that they're streaming games they didn't pay for as well. It's all gone as soon as publishers decide to enforce it.
— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) October 22, 2020
The real truth is the streamers should be paying the developers and publishers of the games they stream. They should be buying a license like any real business and paying for the content they use.
— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) October 22, 2020
Yeah, as you can see, that is one hell of a tweet to post from a company whose product has failed to capture the audience it seeks. However, despite his absurd comments, he’s not wrong. Technically, game developers do reserve the right to basically strike all streamers and creators to kingdom come if they wanted to, Nintendo certainly has done in the past, and so have many Japanese companies too! See when you buy a game, you technically are buying a license of that game in some cases. Most games companies permit YouTubers to violate their copyrights, with creators and publishers turning a blind eye out of consideration of the promotional value of being featured on high-audience channels.
I mean it’s free advertising and it works! Yet, the reality is if they decide to switch up on us, it’s basically game over for millions of streamers. So Alex suggesting that gamers “pay to stream” their games it isn’t too far out of the realms of possibility, that’s why people were outraged by his comment or clowning him, they fear him starting something dangerous. And with the industry finding ways to get more money out of us (loot crate and microtransaction), yeah most of us don’t need that
Anyway, it was interesting to see people freak out but let me know what you guys think.