Posting videos to YouTube or other platforms of gameplay is a very popular hobby. Some of these videos and livestreams get millions of views. Primarily, they come from PC and console games since the hardware and software needed to capture video from those devices is relatively cheap and easy to use.
It’s not nearly as easy to capture video from a mobile device — or at least, it wasn’t until Kamcord launched in early October. Kamcord is a developer that provides studios with an easy-to-implement video-recording solution for their games. Games that use Kamcord, like the parachuting title Stickman Base Jumper, allow players to share gameplay videos directly from their mobile phone.
And already, gamers are recording around seven videos every second. Users upload many of those to YouTube or share them on Facebook, and that’s where Kamcord’s co-founder Aditya Rathnam thinks his company provides the greatest benefit for developers.
“The goal is really to help developers get more distribution,” said Rathnam. “If you look at the channels out there today, developers are paying $2 per install through [user-acquisition service] TapJoy or something. What we offer is a really organic way to get distribution. Someone who comes in to a game through Kamcord has likely already seen a video of the game. It’s likely a video of their friends playing the game, and they’re going to be way more interested in the game to begin with.”
Kamcord is now in over 50 games, and Rathnam is focused on bringing in as many developers as possible. The software company should not have too hard a time convincing new studios since gamers want to share videos and this is the only real viable solution currently on the market.
The company is also announcing today that it raised $1.5 million in a seed-funding round from investors that include Yahoo! chief executive officer Marissa Mayer, Tencent, Google Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.
The power of celebrity
To show the power of Kamcord, Rathnam had Google Venture’s Kevin Rose play a game of Stickman Base Jumper.
“Kevin played the game for 20 minutes straight, and then he shared out a Tweet of a video where he landed perfectly on the [target],” said Rathnam. “Since people really engage with him, we saw that 20 percent of people who watched the video clicked through to download the game.”
Hooked on Stickman Base Jumper! kamcord.com/v/2g4rfyry9y/
— Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) November 8, 2012
The average for typical users is 6 percent, which is still respectable. But this shows what celebrity endorsement can do for a mobile game, especially with the added value of personalized video gameplay.
Currently, Kamcord is still only available in iOS games, and the company’s main goal is to bring in new developers and new titles. Expanding to Android is also near the top of that list.