Do streamers contribute to the sales of games or take away from them? Discussion flares up among Japanese users

A series of tweets published by Japanese Twitch streamer and self-proclaimed “macho gamer” @nwata1122 triggered a discussion on the topic of whether gameplay streamers affect sales of games positively or negatively, which resulted in a split in opinions among Japanese users. 

The tweet has since been viewed over 7.6 million times and received over 29.6k likes, with a portion of users agreeing with the statement, citing examples of games that rose to success largely thanks to the effect of streaming such as the recently released Only up! Many also recalled the various titles they decided to purchase upon watching streams and finding the games attractive. It can’t be denied that streamers can have a big impact on games reaching and being discovered by wide audiences, essentially serving as a form of advertisement. 

However, at the same time, many criticized the tweet for being too much of a sweeping statement, as the same cannot be said for games of all types and genres. Story-centered games in particular were cited by many as an example of a genre that suffers greatly from being distributed via streams, as watching the stream equals consuming the content of the game in its entirety. The streamer later expanded on his statement to include this point of view as well. 

This discussion can be linked to a previous discourse started by Hiromichi Takahashi, president of AMATA. Takahashi had proposed that platforms that host gameplay video and video-game streaming such as YouTube and Twitch should introduce mechanisms to share revenue with game developers to compensate for the loss of opportunity some games experience. Takahashi had also raised the important point that with the current state of things, game genres that are negatively affected by streaming might gradually stop being made, dealing a blow to the diversity of video games. (Related article) 

On the other hand, there were also those who were critical of video game streaming as a whole and likened it to piracy, such as the infamous Japanese site Mangamura that had hosted pirated manga. 

The nature of the topic doesn’t allow for a simple answer, but the increasing discussion about the relationship between video game streamers and developers is a sure sign that the situation should not be left alone. Proactive solutions that take both sides into consideration such as that proposed by Hiromichi Takahashi might be the key to resolving the situation.