It’s perhaps an unusual concept to some – the idea that people would like to, and even rather, watch others play a video game on the internet than play themselves – but with the simultaneous growth of YouTube and the launch of the HD generation of games consoles, that’s exactly what millions of people, myself included, began to do. From being a novelty in the early days, back in 2006/07, it has become a livelihood for many of the most successful Youtubers because of advertising revenue and the creation of TV-style “networks” such as Machinima.
However, the golden age of YouTube gaming may be coming to an end. The boom in channel growth has slowed considerably, and Google/YouTube’s increasingly authoritarian policies are beginning to cripple even the longest-running channels. From those posting videos for fun to those doing it for a living, making game videos for YouTube is becoming a bureaucratic nightmare and there is growing calls for a shift away from the number one video site on the internet.
The early days were perhaps the most wholesome. Although some production companies had already made gaming videos as far back as 2003; when the PS3 and Xbox 360 were first released people began to buy their own PVRs (Personal Video Recorders) or capture cards (a computer “attachment” that allows you to record video) and capture their own footage of games. Initially, quality wasn’t great – with many people choosing cheaper PVRs such as the Dazzle to record their footage in standard definition but quality improved when HD alternatives such as the Hauppauge HD PVR and Blackmagic Intensity capture cards came on the market.
A major turning point in the YouTube gaming ‘scene’ was the release of Halo 3 and, more significantly, Call of Duty 4 in late 2007. This is when multiplayer gaming truly kicked off on the next generation. Unlike single player games, which are likely to be very similar experiences for different people playing them, multiplayer games offered infinite possibilities to show off to the world. People began to record their gameplay to show off their highlights from games or even their best games in full. Montages appeared putting many of these highlights together in one video, normally with a musical background.
These videos gained traction on YouTube, but what made this niche one of the most popular on YouTube was the introduction of commentary. Several Youtubers, notably Blame Truth, Hutch, Xcalizorz and Zzirgrizz, began to commentate their gameplay giving tips, news and other information to their audience. This humanized YouTube gaming to many. And this approach meant an explosion of gaming videos on YouTube.
These channels would get several thousand views on their videos, which they typically released several times a week. For home-made content, this was astronomical success at that point in time. Generally, these Youtubers would have ‘real-world’ jobs and would put in their own spare time and effort in capturing (good) gameplay and then editing it, commentating over it and then uploading it. It was a labour of love to those that enjoyed doing it.
Those people that pioneered gameplay commentary built names and reputations for themselves within their own corner of the internet. They were regarded for both their playing ability, as only those who had genuine skill made the investment into making videos at the time, and their personalities. Viewers were attracted to channels by people who were interesting and charismatic to listen to, as well as skilled at the game. These people became celebrities in their own right. Viewers got to know the person behind the microphone and controller, with many Youtubers finding their channels as a good outlet to talk about their personal lives and discuss issues surrounding their work, relationships etc.
A second wave of expansion in both channels and viewers came when Call of Duty 4’s true sequel, Modern Warfare 2, was released in 2009. I’ve already talked about how this game was both a blessing and a curse for the Call of Duty series, and so it was for YouTube gaming. People saw this new game as a jumping in point as far as YouTube was concerned. Thousands, even millions, of new users turned to YouTube to find out about the game – from tips and class combinations to game highlights (such as using the new killstreak rewards). Generally people came to YouTube to see something specific and then ended up returning to see the next videos from the channels that they liked.
Along with Modern Warfare 2 began the growth of the ‘network’ in YouTube terms. Networks, with the most prominent being Machinima, would act similarly to TV networks. Channels would be asked to affiliate with a network (becoming a ‘Partner’ as it is known), who would typically post some of their affiliates’ content on their own channels and act as a hub for gaming videos. Youtubers would typically provide perhaps a video a week to the network, in the hope of attracting viewers because of the greater reach these network channels had. On the business side, affiliating with a network meant that all of your videos would be monetised with adverts (something that wasn’t usually available until you had a certain level of viewership). The network would take all the revenue for these adverts, but would pay Youtubers a quarterly fee based on their overall contribution to the network’s advertising revenue. Networks would also act as a ‘union’ of sorts in dealing with the powers-that-be at YouTube, in case of copyright sanctions for when music is used without permission or embargoes on games are broken, for example. For those making videos, YouTube began to be more than just a hobby. Some quite their real-life jobs in the pursuit of their own YouTube career.
One of the most amazing phenomenon in recent gaming history is undoubtedly Minecraft. The indie game that has now sold, as of last Friday, 13 million legitimate copies (and many more free Beta or pirated copies). This game’s success is partially off the back of the game’s adoption by the burgeoning YouTube gaming community. One of the foremost gaming commentators of the day, SeaNanners, posted his first Minecraft video on the 25th of August 2010 and over 40,000 people viewed it within the first week. From there, Minecraft exploded onto the gaming scene, with many people copying the style of SeaNanners by showing their full adventures within the game. This “Let’s Play” style of game video also blew up from this point in time.
Naturally, people saw the new-found success of gaming on YouTube, in particular the growth in network related income, and wanted to emulate their favourite channels themselves. Hundreds of new channels sprung up during 2010. Success wasn’t guaranteed for these new Youtubers. As with any market, there is a saturation point. Only the channels that offered something different, one example that springs to mind is WoodysGamertag, who offered his advice on how to improve as an “unexceptional” Call of Duty player, had any of the growth that the earlier channels had. Overall, quality was diluted. The communities that built up around traditional channels became less intimate, and in an attempt to please a wider audience, some channels became more generic.
Since those days, the scene of gaming on YouTube has been in decline in the eyes of many. No new games have produced nearly as much of a ‘gold rush’ as Minecraft in the three years since. Subscriber bases have either grown at a slower rate, or even began to dwindle. For the Call of Duty commentators, this can be blamed in part because of the growing indifference of gamers to the series. Youtubers have begun to diversify their content, posting playthroughs of single-player games with their unique commentary styles; either alongside or instead of multiplayer games, to attempt to reverse the slump. But the levels of success have been mixed.
More seriously, over the last two or three years, and more intensely in the last few weeks, YouTube has begun to take a much harder line with the YouTube gaming community when it comes to ad revenues. Before, gamers would either retain all of their own ad revenue or receive some of it as part of being affiliated with one of the YouTube networks. Recent policy shifts have meant that this is becoming much more difficult for Youtubers to do. In the last few weeks, YouTube’s new “content ID match” software means that any video that contains similar audio-visual content to another will be flagged as copyright. This means that the first creator of a video using a game (or whoever the automated system believes to be the first creator) will have the power either to monetise the other person’s video for their own gain, block the video outright or leave it be. In today’s community, YouTube gaming videos are about money, not for the love of doing it – so chances are that when these “Copyright Notices” appear, that the video is going to be taken down.
Obviously this is a massive issue, as Youtubers cannot claim to own games’ content. They could claim ‘fair use’ or ‘derivative work’ in many other arenas, but YouTube have taken steps earlier this year to explicitly state in their terms of use that these claims are invalid. Another dangerous flaw in YouTube’s system is its’ reliance on automation. A detailed look at the “Copyright Notices” of one Youtuber, Xcalizorz, shows that many of the disputes on his videos come not from a publisher, or gaming video channel, but mysterious networks ELLO movies and Scale Lab, which have absolutely nothing to do with the audio-visual content of Xcalizorz’s videos. YouTube’s attempt at giving power to video game/music publishers has catastrophically backfired and leveraged the positions of irrelevant channels unfairly.
Even the original poster of video game content, by YouTube’s system’s reckoning, is not immune from YouTube’s new system. If you are deemed to be using content that is found elsewhere, it is stated that you must have express permission from the game publisher to upload footage of the games. Publishers take widely varying stances on the use of their games’ footage. Before, when the market was smaller, publishers paid less attention to the YouTube scene – and generally those that did saw it as free advertising for their games. Although as money began to enter the equation, publishers’ have a more keen interest in YouTube. The recent furore over the “Content Match” system has brought some responses from developers in favour of Youtubers, but their support can’t be assured in future. With the increasing amounts of money involved, publishers see it as a new revenue stream being created from their content – and naturally feel that others should not be benefiting, even derivatively, from it. So some developers are either cutting the stream off outright or diverting it into their own pockets.
Some Youtubers are now beginning to suggest moving their operations to other, more game-video-friendly websites – such as the live streaming site Twitch, instead of trying, and failing, to co-operate with YouTube and their owners Google.
Another recent development in the YouTube gaming scene, but still unclear at the moment, is that the PS4 and Xbox One have the ability to record game footage natively without the need for capture cards. It would be reasonable to assume that it will further dilute the quality of the genre, with pithy clips from a multitude of channels being much more prevalent than properly commentated videos, but whether it will affect the viewership of regular channels remains to be seen.
With the proliferation of the internet, sharing feats of wonder in video games was always going to happen. YouTube, as the largest video hosting website in the world, was a natural home for that. But if YouTube are making that home less hospitable, and that home is becoming too crowded, perhaps gaming will move away from YouTube for good.