This sponsored post is produced in association with Azubu.
Creating and delivering livestreamed gameplay — whether a tournament event as it happens, a publisher’s demo of a work in progress, or just someone playing a game others might be interested in watching — is a segment of the video-game industry that’s exploded in the last few years.
How big is it? Well, big enough that Google has a dedicated gaming subsection and recently launched a YouTube Gaming app, both of which enable enthusiasts to watch an extensive offering of livestreams and stored gameplay footage wherever they are. Big enough that Amazon snatched up livestreaming giant Twitch last year for approximately a billion dollars and is integrating it into its growing game-publishing/-development business.
And big enough that there’s an increasing number of smaller companies offering streaming content (for viewers worldwide or regionally) and software/tools for those who want to stream to the masses, with seemingly new ones starting up every month.
Yes, it’s big…and rapidly growing bigger. If streaming business is a pie, there’s plenty of slices and pie to go around.
Booms with a view
Streamed content is being supported by millions of viewers consuming massive amounts, particularly in the realm of eSports. As a point of reference, streams of the 2014 League of Legends World Championship Finals had a concurrent viewership of about 11.2 million (close to 30 percent higher than 2013), and while the 2015 Finals viewer numbers haven’t been tallied up yet, no one will be surprised if it demonstrates similarly incredible growth. These may not challenge the Super Bowl’s viewer numbers (this past February, Super Bowl XLIX had an average audience of 114.4 million viewers), but it’s still amazing when you consider that it’s video-game enthusiasts watching two teams shoot it out on a virtual playfield for supremacy.
“I remember the days of downloading MPEG files to watch Thresh [recognized as the first professional gamer in the mid-’90s] playing Quake,” says Charles Bathel, director of community for eSports streaming network Azubu, in a phone interview with VentureBeat. “It’s a whole different era right now, and I think eSports, thanks to streaming, is finally stepping into the beginning of its prime.”
With all this industry competition, mostly driven by a couple of big players at the top, isn’t there a fear of larger companies dominating the segment and pushing out most of the other smaller startups?
“When there are one or two established dominant forces in the market, the market slows down,” Bathel says, “Competition fundamentally drives things forward, which we expect will provide a better experience for the viewers.”
One way that streaming companies are improving the viewer experience is through the technology they’re using to present this kind of video. For example, Bathel talks about how Azubu has expanded the number of “ingest points” (where streams are uploaded), especially in areas where it sees higher activity from streamers creating content and viewers trying to access streams. The end result is higher-quality video, with less lag and sputter for the viewers.
“For a company that’s coming up and trying to step into a new space, you always want to look and find what you can do better,” Bathel advises. “Grind where you can actually do something unique, but totally comfortable to the end user.”
Evolving a new medium
Bathel equates these strides in streaming to the evolution of remote controls for televisions. He says the first TV remote was literally a strobe light you had to point at different spots on the TV to take advantage of its functionality. The somewhat primitive device worked, but inspired someone to create a better remote using infrared, which was followed by a better smart remote and then a better-still WiFi remote. He said the desire to make things better for the end user puts pressure on companies to innovate.
Unfortunately, Bathel says, gamers can sometimes engage in tribalism. Tribalism can help communities when they start off: Leaders help form the community, help the community form a sense of identity, and help newcomers come into the game and get a better overall experience. On the other hand, this sometimes can cause a situation where gamers will passionately support a game they prefer and dismiss a game that is similar, if only out of the honest intent to promote what they love.
This concept extends to all aspects of gaming — processors, graphics cards, peripherals, and even streaming services can all be part of someone’s gaming identity. This gaming tribalism helps everyone form a strong, passionate community, but it can also cause people to refuse to try something new. Bathel argues that gaming, at its heart, is about competition of ideas and abilities: Gamers should always challenge both what they love, and the new services that compete with them, to be the best.
Competition in gaming, at its core, helps everyone. Companies can get comfortable with what they’re providing, but no one can become complacent, rest on their laurels, and not bother to push forward. Gamers can become comfortable with a streaming platform, but even if they have a favorite, pressing on the streaming companies to do things better will bring about change and further improvement.
“There’s space in the market for people to constantly come in and say, ‘Let’s do this differently. Let’s provide our angle of what we think the best experience is, then push for it,’” Bathel notes. “The best thing is, when they start implementing those new ideas, the people who benefit most are the stream viewers. Either the idea is the best thing ever and all the services copy the new tech, or someone else has an even better idea and pushes the bar even higher”.
Yes, the gamers are winners, thanks to new developments and progress, and, in turn, so are the streaming companies who are benefitting from the larger audience. With the high level of innovation we’ve seen in the last few years, it’ll be interesting to keep watching the evolution in this segment. It’s poised to become even bigger — much of it thanks to the fierce competition.
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