Shortly before the close of 2021, we reviewed how the gaming and streaming industry could take advantage of professional media management. We stated examples of how streamers deal with the challenge of managing an unlimited amount of content while they have to distribute and publish it. A similar case to those we explained in our “Your future is audiovisual too” series about other sectors like education, corporate and public institutions.
In the case of the gaming and streaming industry, video is not just a complement to the main activity; it’s the core of the business. Digital content creators earn a living creating, distributing and publishing videos for their loyal community. It’s a business growing each day and whose size should route to the use of professional tools for media management.
Let’s back that statement with some data. In October 2021, Twitch suffered a data leak that included the earning figures of the platform’s leading stars. The streamer CriticalRole was ahead of the list with a 9,6$ Million payment, followed by xQc with 8,4$ Million. And this was only from subscription fees, as advertising sponsorships and other not included incomes are not included. So yes, streaming is indeed a millionaire business.
However, money is not the only thing to consider here. We also have to mention the repercussion that some streaming stars acquired and how they became media referents. For example, the New Year’s Eve special conducted by Ibai Llanos in Spain achieved an 800,000 viewers peak on Twitch, more than some of the Spanish TV networks.
The spontaneity of these content creators is indeed one of their main features. We are not talking about changing how they perform during their streamings or create content, but if they reached these figures using simple media management and planning tools, imagine what they might achieve with professional solutions.
Getting deeper into a shared content
Although these stars manage their channels individually on different platforms, collaborations are often common. They are not like other media environments where egos and rivalries generated rivers of ink. Obviously, there are some exceptions, but most streamers seemed to get along with their colleagues. We can usually watch them discussing games, life, or challenging each other like ElRubius or AuronPlay.
But the everyday environment where streamers create content and collaborate is while playing. That’s where rivalries and competitions are born, and where interact in an ecosystem their fans love. A good example is the videogame’s campaigns and private servers in which they take part.
We can find a piece of that in Marbella Vice, a collaborative server that in 2021 gathered the main stars of the streaming world. With GTA V as the base, a universe based on the Andalusian city of Marbella was the ecosystem of the game, where crime and mean streets were the protagonist. The guest stars interacted between them and the fans followed their adventures in live streamings on Twitch or videos on YouTube.
According to the data engineer Pedro Medinilla, the streamers generated 6.921 live streamings, with 29,557 content hours. We are talking about three years of video content that might become unmanageable and a problem for the streamer’s professional teams without a professional catalog, preservation and archive.
Imagine a streamer’s edition team asking another one for a specific 30 seconds clip with some game action. Now picture in your mind the editor diving into the infinite content hours without any reference to find that particular moment.
It’s here where VSNExplorer MAM makes the work easier for the professional teams surrounding the streamers. With this Media Asset Management system, the content receives proper metadata and catalog, making it easier to search and locate the file afterwards. Thanks to the system’s integration with Artificial Intelligence engines, this process can be automated, requiring only manual validation.
Let’s come back to the last example; the editor is searching for a game scene in front of a specific location of the virtual universe. Just introducing this place into the search, VSNExplorer MAM detects and shows all the particular content that complies with the parameters and metadata, including this place. This way, the search only returns the expected results.
Furthermore, the VSNExplorer suite includes a state-of-the-art content hub like VSNExplorer Exchange, allowing for fast, economical and secure media transfer between the professional editing teams of the streamers. All this, without leaving the MAM web interface.
A new distribution opportunity
Nowadays, gaming streamers often monetize via two main distribution windows. The first one is the live game streaming itself. The second one is the publication of chapters, reactions, or best moments on YouTube. And that’s all. The games are not usually exploited from another point.
To illustrate this example, we’re going to use the current most popular universe between the Spanish-speaking content creators (which features some of the most viewed streamers in the world). We’re talking about Egoland 2, a private server from the videogame Rust. During the first day, the live streaming of this server peaked with 900.000 individual viewers. If you write the name of this campaign on the YouTube searcher, you can easily find videos of Ibai Llanos, TheGrefg, AuronPlay and many others playing on the server.
The main gaming stars are sharing hours of a videogame locked in an environment created for them. In this universe, they form teams, interact and develop an unscripted story in front of thousands of viewers. However, fans can only enjoy this narrative from one point of view. Each streamer produces its live streaming and highlights video. Imagine a classic TV reality show where you can only follow one participant. It doesn’t seem logical, right? Why not level up the collaborations between streamers? How? By creating a common and unique narrative when they play together on servers like Egoland 2.
If we make a quick search on YouTube, we can find how third-party users and fans edit and produce videos with highlights and create a narrative with images from different streamers. Not just the fans, we also have specialized media compiling what’s going on during the games. For example, while we are writing this article, the main story of Egoland 2 is a war between ElRubius and The Grefg.
The case is simple. Once the games are over, the streamers’ editing teams can share the live streams between them. Then, they can produce together videos with the highlights, controversies and create a shared storyline to what’s going on the server. We could have the global picture of the reality, plus the individual, without third parties taking advantage.
This post-production process can be performed fastly and easily thanks to the professional catalog and archiving provided by VSNExplorer MAM and the content exchange with VSNExplorer Exchange. Streamers can publish a coherent list of highlights each day and create an improvised storyline about the server. All this, without losing focus on their activity: playing and creating.
But this is not the only opportunity to get the most out of the content. Let’s move forward on time, to the moment when Egoland 2 finishes. We will have thousands of hours of live content with different actions like attacks, jokes, romances, alliances between teams… Enough material to create separate chapters and a series. Without the agitation of an active server, streamers could share the content and create a series with a strong storyline. And that’s something that literally nobody is doing.
With the figures of viewers from these digital stars and the media repercussions of their games, it’s perfectly possible to believe that any streaming platform could be interested in the highlights of Egoland 2, only if a consistent storyline is provided to the content. Also, if none of the big media knocks on our door, these content creators have proved their independence with YouTube at the core of their business. Arriving at this point, they could perform the series’s media distribution and content planning using VSNCrea.
In summary, the gaming and streaming industry has a lot of challenges on its way to consolidating its current growth. At VSN, we believe our solutions and products can help them create and manage this content efficiently and easily. We wouldn’t mind being the mushroom that allows Mario to grow and save Princess Peach.
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