Earn my money. AAAA games are dumpster fires. Why should I pay for day one failures when it takes an additional 3-4 years of patches and dlc to get the real game. By that point the game is discounted 85%. AAAA developers have ripped me off for the last time.

As AAA readjusts (crashes) the rise of Indie developers is nigh. I welcome it. Talent will become the filter, not budgets. If influencers understand gaming, then more power to them. Hopefully.

Regarding the "gaming influencer" purchasing and conversion - gamers as a community have a weak sales resistance. It's part of why gaming is so big. But that sales resistance can be exploited not just to sell you games, but to sell you male beauty products or overpriced headphones. You rarely see gaming influencers sponsored by a gaming publisher - most of the time, it's the generic dropshipping brands that target them. And it makes sense, because gamers, as a whole, are the type willing to put down upwards of $70 preordering a product they won't get for 6 months. Preordering a prodcut where there's no chance of supply ever running out, thanks to digital purchases. This weak sales resistance is exploited across the board, with all kinds of garbage "gamer merch" - from RGB keyboards that suck, to "gaming chairs" and "gaming desks" and all kinds of gaming peripherals - all overpriced and targeted at exploiting a weak mind. I love gamers, but we really need to get better. Our weakness is causing the downfall of the industry. As for influencer games - influencers are mere consumers who delude themselves into thinking they understand creation simply because they're famous. Critics who think they can dominate the medium they criticize. Their ignorance combined with their ego ensures they are incompatible with making a good game. The game they make must represent their brand, and that's a whole different issue.

Dr. Disrespects game is gonna be garbage. Its gonna be an NFT extraction shooter.

Everyone is busier now with less time, less money, and less mental health to be consumed by petty bullshit. So we all want money well spent on things that respect our time.

I am envious of the position. To be able to gather a team and they make the game that is in your head? That’s a life long dream come true. A bucket list item so prestigious it deserves its own, separate bucket.

The AAA companies aren’t delivering. I think if a content creator wants to make/publish an actual game I say go for it. If the game is bad, most people won’t keep playing it just to support the creator.

What you're describing influencers do is what I would imagine what a market researcher or community managers should do. They don't, AAA is disconnected from their playerbase/fans for the most part and it shows.

We trust advertisements less these days, and the influencers we follow much more. When I want to find out how a game plays, I go to twitch or youtube, and *then* to the game's website if I like what I see. Marketing isn't dead, it's evolving.

Influencer studios are going to have their own indie versus triple a situation sooner or later. You will have amazing studios like Asmongolds, Klean, Dunky etc. and then you’re going to have dumpster fires like Doc, whatever Shroud is making, Operation Harsh Doorstep, etc. At the end of day as long as the game is good that’s all that really matters. Everything else really doesn’t matter in the eyes and mind of a consumer but more so in the eyes of a businessman or investor.

the thing is, alot of IPs have also built in fans, like the streamers, but the big companies decided to throw a granade without warning into those fans of movies, tv/streaming or games

22:38 That thumbnail is like a beacon. A glaring, reflective beacon. He will watch this.

for the millionth time they didn't make it, they published it.

Warframe did the exact opposite, they made their own content creation and feedback platform from inside through Prime Time, Devstreams and, most recently, DevShorts.

Will just say, this was bound to happen, most advertising borders on false advertising, most review metrics are brigaded for one reason or another (and most reviews seem BS even then), thus streamers are kind of forced to take the mantle as the trusted source, since they can show actually playing the game, so that an audience can see and make a clear choice, especially since it's way harder to fake this in front of the customer. (especially since even if you are sponsored to stream something, the best thing to check a game is whether they go back after the sponsorship)

I see no difference between influencer's selling games to their audience and companies like ubisoft and capcom selling games to their audience.

Around the 20min mark, you exactly said what I thought over time while watching: Publishing games through content creators might be like having a community manager with many years of experience. They already know their chat and how they talk.

The ability to "put your money where you mouth is" is something that i think will make the next generation of major publishers. but i use "major" in a sense that they wont beholden to shareholder nonsense. They will ensure that what they want to play, or what there audience may want to play is exactly what gets published. And people are willing to pay abit more for a game they feel is worth it. I really hope this is the wake up call for the gaming industry, but i honestly feel it will simply be a transitional period where the larger publishers are pushed out of the market in favor of these new ones. Least thats a hope. Who knows.

"are this game made because of ego, where they think they can do better than real game devs" The game devs are normal humans, with a set of skills that you can have or acquire. And everyone has for goal to make a better game than the others, at least on some point. nobody try to make a game "average".

I think you're looking at this with the same rose colored glasses that people looked at crowdfunding originally. In reality this is basically the same thing. Essentially you're bypassing the standard publisher function. The publisher does one critical thing for big budget studios especially: They eat the cost of failed games, and all of the costs not just the monetary costs. The personal brand will eat those failures when they happen (and they will). I don't think the level of difficulty in handling this is truly appreciated yet and I think it's also the biggest challenge for crowdsourcing still as well. EA's main function for the business of games is being the badguys so other people can be your heroes that are being held back by EA. It's also worth understanding that many times what people say they want is not actually what they want, because they're not perfect or psychic. People will say "I don't like timegating, because it prevents me from playing the game", when they really mean "I don't like being prevented from playing the game" to use your own example. Likewise people will ask for competing things. It's the diablo loot/content problem. People will get frustrated they both can't get good enough loot and don't have enough content at the same time. The loot is the content though. If you give them loot faster they run out of content faster. In reality they're saying the process of getting the loot isn't fun enough and they want to quit sooner than with other similar games. Taking player/audience feedback too directly can actually burn this down when people try to give you tons of loot and in order to drag the content (loot) out they make the pile of loot bigger. The game is just as unfun as it was before though and you end up with a giant pile of unfun play to access that content. This is what happened with diablo 4. I seriously doubt people will less business experience and more audience impact are going to negotiate these waters with more skill than the established players.

This isn't really a new thing, yogscast published a TON of games back in the day, they just kind of never were very successful

I DO like the idea behind "developer Shark tank" like OTK is doing. It allows indies to gain exposure, maybe get some funding and the backing of some marketing tools to help some really creative project. It's a huge step down from "AAAA" games.

The glazing is unreal

Have you ever heard about a game called Animal Well?

My only issue with streamers getting into the game development/publishing market is that no matter what they do or make it will always just seem like another method for them to make another source of income, but by no means do they feel like true passion projects. People will buy what ever they dish out but when it comes down to it they are just products and less on the side of art.

The light being on or off in the kitchen is throwing me off haha

At 12:00 phrase you are looking for is "actionable information".

It just kind of becomes a popularity contest and followers=success. It’s like reviewers being friends with people in the industry, nothing will be upfront. People keep expecting the industry to fix itself, we’re only going to see a few new kings. Nothings going to change because Mizkifs crew is in charge

Influencers are as trustworthy as any AAA Publisher at any given moment. Otherwise I would playing Raid Shadow Legends thinking it was game while eating Pokimane's trash biscuits.

Thats actually one of reasons i quit warframe early. 1. You dont have anything, you want the new thing, but everything is insanely timegated. 2. Even without time gating the game have so many systems you have no idea where to even start

Hey, first time viewer, here, but I thought this was a really well-done, well-informed video. I agree with your opinion that content creators have the capacity to change the gaming industry, especially in this current gamedev environment. You're right - a lot of people are looking for smaller, less expensive (but still really high quality) experiences, and the more wealthy CCs are in a great position to deliver such media to a starving audience. I'm sure AAA, big-budget titles will always exist in some form or another, but it's always great to see the indie and AA community of developers thriving. I am a software dev and I do a little gamedev on nights and weekends. It's a hard, hard skill to learn, but it's easier now than ever thanks to the bevvy of online resources. I know that sounds contradictory, but it's true. Game development is, in my opinion, at the moment the most complex piece of art you can engage in, in terms of production. It feels all-encompassing, requiring discipline in art, music, effects (both sound and visual), cinematography, writing, and so much more, and that's only for the aesthetics. There's a lot more to get into when it comes to making something feel good. But like I said, easier to get into now than ever. I personally have used Unity, Unreal, Godot, GDevelop and Game Maker. I've also messed around with a few JavaScript-based frameworks, which are a bit different than a full on engine. If you are interested in game design and creation, I'd say, pick an engine and a coding language. Don't shy away from learning to code, either, it's the most essential skill for game development. But I highly suggest learning by doing something small, and moving from there. There's a ton of resources here and in other places (and most game engines have great documentation, which is honestly the first place I'd start when learning any of these new tools). I'd also not worry too much about drama in the community as a whole - a lot of people are toxic as all hell in the Godot and Unity communities, and people *love* to shit on Unity devs right now (my main project is in Unity, so I get a lot of this that I just...ignore) - most the devs I talk to in the field are of the mind that you just need to pick an engine that can do what you wanna do, and make stuff. Good luck, bros.

If it wasn't for watching a few let's plays on KZfaq, I never would have played Dark Souls, or any of the the other FromSoft games which are now some of my favourites. I'm way more likely to buy a game now after I've watched a let's play, and seen whether it's really up my alley or not. The reverse is also true, where there are games, like Palworld, and Animal Well, that are very much the zeitgeist, but are absolutely not for me.

Wanted to say the video was insightful till I got to the end and realized you completely sidestepped Asmons latest game (rumbleclub) that is a disaster and instead only focused on atomic picnic (which was legit fun during the beta but isn't actually out). I know you like the guy but integrity still matters.

Its organic content farming, instead of the current industrial scale clickbait content farming that is the KZfaq META. I don't see a downside for consumers.

Another great and well articulated video, thank you! I always enjoy hearing about news and your own thoughts, even if I don't have much to comment

What next? The Kardashian's selling makeup?

Animal Well is 50MB. Whoever Dunkey just pulled to make it knows how to do a ton with very little.

I think this step forward will obviously have both pros and cons we're bound to see some streamer/youtubers will try to pull scheme and scam like games while others may actually be releasing actual games with no schemes and scams in its foundation.

Great vid. It made me think about how much yours and your audiences opinion matter to the devs. Keep up the good work!

Asmongold saw all those mmo scams and was like "hey guys I need to make an mmo" xD

I'd rather influencer make games than mega corps. At least a influencer knows they need fans and have reason to protect their brand, and we the consumer can guess based off how that influencer has behaved for years to gage if they might be good with game development.

1:00 synthwave goose from bladerunner 2049 is such a good song!

OTK's Starforge builds good PCs according to Gamers Nexus. I think their group is legitimately trying to run a decent set of businesses. IDK what is coming out of Mad Mushroom though, which is their game studio.

LOL TTRPG influencers do this ALL the time, and the quality of work is VERY questionable. influencers lose their revenue stream over time. "branching out" to host / front / invest in game design is a natural evolution. Folks will buy whatever it is because cult of personality is a thing, even if it's cardboard-flavored cereal. this is why steeamers and influencers get paid sponsorships in the first place. There's no guarantee what they promote has any personal investment from them or that it's even any good. it's simply wolves preying on their herd.

Great takes lately man, good job

A publishers job is to fund and market the game, and most of the time they’re picking up a project that’s already worked on enough to have an idea of where it’s going. You have to be really incompetent to mess that up as a KZfaqr.

What I want to see is 1. How will loyalty and parasocialism play into sales and criticism of the product. 2. How much will these games sell for (they almost all universally bash the $60-70 tag). 3. How well the games are made to known game design knowledge, which includes how hands on vs hands ofd they'll be to the people making the game. 4. How experimental vs standard will the games be? Will they be pushing ideas like Animal Well or will they fall back to safe-games like AAA?

I’m glad the “milk man” is getting recognized~ His run of new Vegas is hilarious~

Basically a game streamer and their audience also makes for a really good QA team.

Feels like a dangerous tipping point

Absolutely true, everything that is said and addressed in this vid. Well done LD. Well done.

Do you know about the game Fretless The Wrath of Riffson? the main character is supposed to be Jared Dines famous musician youtuber, dude who hosted Metal Mansion last summer. Tons of youtube musicians are making songs for it. Even Alex Moukala (he's like the Hanz Zimmer of game music). I have still yet to see any game reviewers talk about it...... Also, the game, The Last Medic.. it's really really good, Once Upon a Synth made it.. the whole game, and all the music, he's a youtuber musician turned game dev

for warframe, you prolly got so many ppl saying it wasnt that big of an issue cuz all the high hrs long term players that got tired of it might of left😶. the long real time wait on constructing items by itself probably isnt gonna get someone to quit, but it is an issue and a compounded one. before it wasnt that big of a deal cuz as a f2p game it was one of the only a few ways they were monetized, it sucked but understandable, but now with all the ways theyre monetized from fan creations and the increased price of the prime bundles having to wait 4 days after the already egregious grind for a new or frame you dont have is painful and unnecessary.

There's been a pattern of AAA(A) games are failures at release and have a sale just 2-3months.

My great uncle is Norm Green. He funds games because he is bored. I do not see a problem.

The uhhhh..... the timegating in warframe is most CERTIANLY so thay they can sell the microtransaction that instantly finishes the crafting. I can guarantee it never had any notion of being any kind of a positive for the player back in development Edit - I feel like I should note that I'm not saying it out of negative bias, I love the game and have been playing it since BEFORE movement 2.0 in like 2014 or whatever

Without question, the creator platform will be one of the game development industry's biggest factors that shape it's own landscape. Personally, I can only see this growing much larger, and overall being more productive and successful that traditional publishers currently imagine them capable of being; AKA, copium. I could be wrong, but we shall see.

Good video. Big companies don't wanna show off too much and even D4 wasn't giving ptr versions of seasons and patches. Big companies spending 100+mils don't want the game to be ruined by early perspectives when they could be getting public info on how to make a game better. Xbox/PS look for the first dollar not the long dollar. Now that people like myself can judge a game by 5-10 hours of a streamer and not a 30 second commercial the tables have turned. I'd much rather a streamer influncer that can collab with the devs to adjust and produce a good product than a 70 dollar flop i play for 3 hours and regret wasting my money on. Also, 5-10 dollar games are much more viable now instead of a purely CGI gorgeous experiences. if its fun and engaging its more likely to sell than what used to be crazy unique graphics which are all common now but cost $$$$$

I think a lot of the triple a developers are going to be replaced as house names with what were previously indi developers in the next 10 years 100% unless triple a does a 180 on the path theyre headed down, indie devs will take lead because theyre msking what gamers actually want- good games.

Games were made from gamers for the gamers and really games are meant to be fun, engaging and overall unique experiences. Games are about gameplay and telling a interesting story with loads of plot twists and turns. It was never about the issues with female characters in games or sending a political message. Its all about fun whether its with friends or playing alone in the dark..there are games made for everyone. We need games to go back to being niche and we need to gatekeep these so called "journalist" and "influencers" out. If anyone has ever played through an entire single player game it gives list of names of people who worked on the game in the credits after completing the emtire story. Iv decided to put my career goals into being a 3D artists and that is what im going to do😢

I’m just here for the spiritbox shirt

Same reason we plant trees for air, food, and water. Gamer content creators need something they could rely on. The mainstream industry can't be trust anymore.

When will people figure out that more games aren't a threat to the industry, they're a threat to established, bloated, and lazy developers/publishers. There is always a bigger fish and when you aren't competitive or offering a good product, your customers will go elsewhere. When you insult your customers, they will eventually stop buying your products.

Game Grumps also had a very well received game in Homebody recently. Lots of passion going into these indie games. The “cash grab” mentality could be true for some creators, but it’s a lot better than triple A games when they’re almost all purely cash grabs.

After the latest news from Microsoft broke down, I realized I played very few AAA games for myself this year. I write reviews so I played multiple AAA games for that but personally I spent my money mostly on indies and AA games in last 7-8 months. And the way things are going, I do not thing that will change in near future. I also started (lightly) to learn some development basics myself as I really wish to contribute somehow to independent market instead of throwing insane amounts of money at tril/billion companies.,

No this is what's saving it. I am also seeing a genera of what I am calling Live React Gaming or LRGs and I am doing research on making games that are not just engaging for the player but the ones watching. You need to expand your mind and get out there and see the world a bit.

It's a double-edged sword. Because content creators can just as easily take advantage of their audience. Dr Disrespect's game is a nft dumpster fire, and the fact that hardly any content creators mention or talk about it is disappointing, including you.

The publishing houses these influencers are opening don’t have anything to do with the actual development of the game so as long as the influencers continue to understand that they bring the eyes and the devs bring the game theres absolutely nothing wrong with that and your entire video falls short. You’re acting like the influencers are planning, designing & building these entire games. They are not, they’re finding the talent and supporting them with publishing and marketing money.

I don't at all trust a game just because a youtuber I like threw money at it.

Atomic picnic looks like it could be a less intense roboquest. I loved Roboquest at first, but I am not a high APM person and that game makes me feel like I am straight trash sometimes. A problem of my interaction with FPS games since I over value skill and reaction time in them, so combining FPS and rogue platform is just not my cup of tea.

also i'll take streamers putting a small team on the map over giant publishers buying competition and then cannibalize them. too many great studios have died to corporate greed. i don't know how EA and Activation are still able to talk studios into joining their umbrella after destroying so much of the industry.

Helldivers 2 is still blocked in 177+ countries lets get that info right.

ArrowHead has abusive Discord Mods. Never say the name "Grummz" Or risk the wraith of their furry Discord Mod silencing you.

The inverse of this is Dev-turned-Influencer which is Pirate Software

And what about exclusive titles? Years after (not months, but years) get release on PC at full price. Using excuses like: Devs need to get pay. When devs got pay when the game was released years ago.

It's a pleasure to listen to smart thoughts on this emerging trend :)

That thumb nail though!

As technology advances, it only makes sense games will become easier to make. Just need to have some people study Ai so can compete with bigger companies that will have an Ai advantage in games.

brother, what a great video. i saw you in zackrawrr's twitch chat the other day, you make awesome videos and i hope you continue to and if you would make a game, i wish you success in that as well! I truly believe that content creators are the future of game publishing and marketing because these big companies are just too slow to compete. Great video man keep up the great work!

If some random guy yelling at video games from his attic/basement decides to start publishing video games and he does it better than a professional publisher who has been at it for years / decades... I don't know what to say. Good? Thanks?

just got off my 85th hour of hades 2 so i could come laugh at AAA companies

Animal Well is supposedly incredible. I'm planning on picking it up soon.

otk's latest mobile pay to win micro transaction ridden mess is a good example

More independent (non corporate) gaming ventures is what will save this medium of entertainment. If the games are good, they will do well. If they are shit, nothing will save them, no matter how much "influence" is backing the effort. As much as AAA gaming has been completely collapsed under the weight of corporate greed, with technology now allowing great games to be produced with smaller independent development studios, I'm all for encouraging more and more creators throwing their hat into the ring.

Can’t wait for the reaction 🔥

I think maybe some influencers could publish/create games with integrity but if influencer publishers start taking off I'm sure it's just a matter of time until it's the new boss same as the old boss.

superb insight

Living example of gamers/streamers with their own games is "tavern light games ravendawn" and "wingeon drakantos"

I’ll take the route of cautious optimism. With AAA studios dying a gruesome death, Indy devs have never been more relevant. Creators developing their studios could be EXACTLY the break in freedom the industry needs. There is a sense of blind loyalty to be careful of, though that argument could apply to any studio today. The disconnect from AAA to gamers is so vast, I think we need people who are connected, who actually care about the product they release. Granted they’re able to avoid the AAA greed trap, higher end creators with deep pockets creating their own games is EXACTLY the type of change the industry needs.

Middlemen exist to give power to GANGSTALKERS

did that NFT game from doctor disrespect ever come out? or was it quietly swept under a rug? 😂

biggest hit in what way? stellar blade has that cake so far i believe

These influencers will be running to their mommies when the industy comes out with AAAAAA-games

I dont think anyone should pick this up. Once you watch you'll see.

So what you’re telling me is real people, relatable people, showing proof of their experience/knowledge and being honest in their opinions and thoughts earns some level of trust and respect which universally benefits the parties involved? WOW. But seriously, very much enjoyed the video. Wholeheartedly agree.

banger like allways!

I love how this video title is ambiguous. Is being a threat to the industry good or bad?

The only threat to the industry is the industry Itself.

Just wait until the development tools are mature enough for everyone to able to use them extremely efficiently, then gamers will make their games too. I always envisioned a democratic gaming industry where big tech companies will simply lose influential control over the industry.. Soon the intricacies and the fundamentals of game design will be understood with easier adoption through AI..

It’s funny to me that sooooo many people hate on content creators but we get so much entertainment from them and now the possibility of games? Couldn’t be me hating on these people 😂