How Game Streaming Went From Shaky Webcams To the PS4 113
An anonymous reader writes "A slightly different take on Sony's PS4 semi-launch this week. This article traces the history and growing trend of capturing/recording and streaming your gameplay on the internet, from the early days of Let's Play articles with screenshots to today, where pro-gamers make money by playing live on Twitch.tv, and the technology is built into the PlayStation 4: 'Multiplayer video games have been around since the beginning — just look at Pong. Sony's real breakthrough with the PS4 might not be the specs, but its ability to turn every game you play into a multiplayer one.'"
Re:Hey gamers! (Score:5, Insightful)
HAHAHA!
Tell that to AVG/VGA, AVGN, Angry Joe, PewDiePie, TobyGames, Game Grumps, Machinima...the list goes on. Basically, what I'm getting at is that people already make a living off of "Let's Play" videos on YouTube/TwitchTv/Rev3.
How about you stop telling people what to do? Nobody cares about your "never gonna happen" attitude when it's already been done.
Re:Hey gamers! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeeeeees... and while a lot of people love watching the Superbowl, it's kinda tedious to watch some little league games.
I hope you see the SLIGHT difference between watching a professional do what he is really good at, and watching some self absorbed geek pretend to be someone special.
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There is no difference. Both are still playing a game. Neither are necessary for the world to continue, they are both merely forms of entertainment.
And "self absorbed geek"? Really? You think those "professionals" are real humble, stand-up kind of guys?
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The difference is whether or not watching them do whatever they do is interesting. And, bluntly, unless you're a parent of one of the little leaguers out there, watching a bunch of kids try to kick or catch a ball without stumbling over their own feet is not. It's not entertainment. It's torture.
And the same applies to watching 99% of the people out there play a computer game. It simply is not interesting. The people who are interesting to watch, be it computer or football players, know how to make it inter
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I have zero interested in watching any kind of sports and so do many others. I do, however, like watching some gamers because I am a gamer.
Different people, different opinions. Stop trying to belittle others' means of enjoyment. One isn't more important or better than another.
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I bet you a 1000 bucks, I couldn't even PAY you enough to watch me play. Hell, you'd ask me for your time back. That's pretty much what I am saying.
Watching someone who can make it ENTERTAINING for the audience is fun. Watching some random idiot play the same game is torture. And the problem I foresee is that 99% of the people out there make it torture enough that most will stop sifting through the crap before even finding that one guy who is interesting to watch.
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Again, I don't question the information value of channels for reviews and the entertainment value of watching good players easily beat a tricky part in a game. I just question that more than a tiny, insignificant fraction of people are worth being watched playing.
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A number of times I've been owned in a game, by the same guy over and over, and thought it'd be really cool to watch them play for a while...
I'm intruiged by this idea, personally.
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Lol, Hey Everybody! Watch me play " Evony" for hours on end!
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Heads up gamers, nobody wants to watch videos of you playing games, especially not your family or coworkers who are not 60-hour-a-week gamers, so please stop sending us Youtube links, okay? I'm never going to play in the NFL and you are never going to make a living playing games in your mom's basement, deal with it.
I'm not particularly interested in streaming video about games, but seeing the popularity (also regarding viewers) in these services I won't say that nobody wants to watch these kind of video.
Re:Hey gamers! (Score:5, Informative)
Where have you been hiding? There is a massive audience for watching people gaming. Perhaps a game that you haven't played nor will you ever. Perhaps an old game that you are unlikely to ever touch. Perhaps you're watching a very skilled person in a competitive game. Maybe someone with great commentary and an enjoyable sense of humor. I sometimes enjoy watching people game (or sometimes just have it on in the back ground) the same way I would enjoy watching people participate in any sport that I competed in, myself, at one time.
Youtube is filled with this and the successful ones have hundreds of thousands or even millions of views. The entire twitch.tv network is built on nothing but live streaming gaming.
The only real problem is the incredible copyright headache that is involved. I don't see how anyone can find doing this worthwhile, when confronted with the reality of the imbalanced and unpredictable copyright that could turn your hobby or livelihood (yes, some of these guys make a living at this, apparently) upside down overnight, just because someone decided to target your stream with a DMCA slap.
Another poster, below, already mentioned a lot of people making serious money doing this for a living. Some less than others, but there's a lot of money to be made for some of these guys simply for playing a game and recording it (or live streaming it). Why shouldn't they, if there's an audience for it? Granted, some are better than others. There are some that are built around nothing but personality (for example, that PewDiePie guy who is obnoxious and spastic and only appeals to toddlers) and some that are built around skill. Others around explaining tips or tricks or offering walkthroughs.
Seriously, there are guys streaming their gameplay on youtube that earn six figure salaries from it. It's insane.
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I've watched some of the SSoHPKC walkthroughs and it doesn't seem too insane. Established youtube channel with ads and 10k-50k views per 10 minute spot. Sounds like better ratings than what some of my local TV stations get.
Re:Hey gamers! (Score:5, Funny)
People watch GOLF.
Watching video games is way more exciting.
People PAY to watch Golf.....
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Silly, silly Sega.
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Silly, silly Sega.
That sounds like some kind of vengeance. "We couldn't make this popular, so we'll make certain you won't either."
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They have a sequel in the works and would rather have people find that.
The result of course is a full blown boycott of Youtubers with two or more strikes on their account. And when your livelyhood depends on it, well...
Riddle me this, Batman: What game publisher will not get any free coverage whatsoever?
Silly, silly Sega.
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then there is the decline of the common game manual. The type of manual that contained formulas and figures behind the pixels. Nowadays you have to rely on others to do the theory crafting or invest quite a lot of time yourself.
In the olden days when we got stuck we did grind our teeth and tried eve
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Heads up gamers, nobody wants to watch videos of you playing games, especially not your family or coworkers who are not 60-hour-a-week gamers, so please stop sending us Youtube links, okay? I'm never going to play in the NFL and you are never going to make a living playing games in your mom's basement, deal with it.
Typical /. fallacy - "I don't want something so it means nobody else wants it either."
Other posts have pointed out, these videos are popular, so what you think is irrelevant. What's more, _I_ have on many occasions would wanted to show my other gaming friends of my gaming, be it a new game I would like to introduce them to, or some cool or funny stuff I encountered.
Yeah, I know, that's what people with friends usually do, so I guess it must be a totally foreign concept to some basement dwelling /.ers.
Re:Hey gamers! (Score:4, Insightful)
To be fair, that's my general attitude, also. I guess it's just human nature. That's why I responded to that previous Slashdot article about the open source emoji stuff by kicking in a few bucks. Sometimes I find that is a good way to counter my initial reaction of "I AM OLD AND WHAT IS THIS NEW THING I AM SO SCARED OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND NEW IDEAS!"
Anyway, I find watching people playing games fun, because I like playing games. Same way I like watching some sports, because I used to enjoy playing them. And of all the drivel on youtube and other streaming services, people playing videogames are far more constructive and less hideous than most of the content. Good on them for doing something potentially constructive (which is weird to say about video games, in a way).
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As an added benefit you can skip the boring parts!
I'm guessing this line of reasoning also applies to why some women love soap operas more than actual relationships.
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> nobody wants to watch videos of you playing games, especially not your family or coworkers who are not 60-hour-a-week gamers, so please stop sending us Youtube links
Total Nonsense. I completed one of the maps on Payday The Heist last year on the hardest difficulty solo stealth just to prove that it could be done and have a few thousand views. Clearly a few people are interested.
Sometimes walkthroughs can be informative. i.e. "Cult of the Vault" symbols for Borderlands 2, Portal 1 & 2 challenges,
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Well, judging from a lot of youtube videos, it highly depends on the title of your video to judge whether you have a few thousand viewers or a few thousand people going "oh fsck". :)
But seriously. In general, yes, there are certain (few) videos of games that can garner some views. Videos that show you how to reach a certain point, how to beat a certain boss or obstacle, how to unlock some secret and of course videos for the purpose of reviewing and judging a title before buying it.
But let's be honest here,
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Yes, no doubt about that. But ponder for a moment how these are seven people playing games who get subs and views. Compare that now to the thousands and thousands of people actually playing those games, and the hundreds who make videos of it.
My point is that yes, there are a VERY FEW people who can actually play and present a game in a way that is entertaining to watch. Like there are VERY FEW people who can play sports in a way that makes it interesting for people to watch them.
Take skiing. I mean, it's ri
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Before I write the same for the, I think, fifth time: Do you even read comments 'til the end or do you by default end at the first paragraph and reply to that? Just so I know whether I fail to get my point across or whether you don't want to actually hear about it.
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Or people are laments like me... I don't have 80 hours of play time to pull off what ends up being a 60 minute play thru.
Watching play thrus is the only way I ever see the end of $50 games anymore.
Explain reality TV then (Score:5, Funny)
I don't really want to watch someone else playing games either... yet I do watch other people working, eating and even having sex. Hell, the watching other people have sex industry is gigantic. And the BBC has a watching other people eat show every 30 minutes (and to humorless moderators, that is a joke, not a statement to be taken as literal claim to the BBC programming, that would be every 15 minutes).
And even the NFL comment is wrong... people pay to watch people remove toilets from buildings in Dirty Jobs. Watch mental retards fail to find gold in the ground but find it in broadcasting deals in stead. Hell Big Brother was nothing more then people sitting in their living room watching other people sitting in theirs. And it was a massive hit.
Lets analyse OC choppers. They aren't doing anything fancy or hightech. By watching it, you are not finding out how other people live their lives. It are just a bunch of overly fat rich white guys who suck at planning (did they EVER just start building a bike on time so it was finished in plenty of time) building gay bikes. How many seasons did it run?
Compared to that, watching someone else game... well it could hardly be anymore boring could it? And really the entire sports industry has proven for decades that people are willing to pay top dollar to watch someone else be marginally better at something that doesn't matter. Why cares who put a little ball the most times in the net? Most of the planet it seems.
I agree, it is time for Humanity 2.0 lets call this run a proof of concept and get god/evolution to do a radical redesign and come up with something less couch potato who doesn't fold at the knees at the sign of a crown, oscar or MVP award.
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All very fine examples, but at the same time they give their own reason why people watch it: They wait for something interesting to happen. Some twist, something exciting or simply the ability to say "gee, at least I am not that deep down in the shit".
That's also the appeal of talk shows, I'm kinda convinced.
I don't get Dirty Jobs, I guess it's one of those "I'm glad I don't have to do it" things. OC Choppers I chalk off as a mix of the hope that the old guy freaks out and of course the appeal of stuff that
But the same is true of "sports" (Score:2)
People watch curling (if I spelled that right) which is basically floor sweeping on ice. What can happen. Someone falls and hurts their bottom a bit. Yet, it is a sport that people watch. Darts? Rakes in millions of viewers. Although it suffered a setback after that Alas Smith and Jones sketch (or was it not the nine o'clock news).
Right now Nascar is in the news. Which is to racing what an empty room is to a maze. Turn left because if you turn right, you get a crash. Well MAYBE people watch for the crashes
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Well, as I pointed out elsewhere, yes, watching that one kid who could play it really well was fun. But face it, 99% of the time we just stood there and hoped that he's out of quarters soon because, well, we sucked at the game, but he sure made us look good.
And it's not going to be different with this. Yes, watching that one guy who can play a game really well and who can pull off moves we never thought possible will be entertaining. Watching the other 99% will be painful. Problem is, that all 100% think th
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But what if we want to share the accomplishments of Farmville with our friends and family in realtime?
This could rival the wheel or fire as useful to mankind.
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There are lots of lets plays but of good PC games and not shitty consoles. This is all nothing new. A lot of people don't have the time or skill or desire to play a game themselves, so they watch a well put together, cut, and edited lets play. Usually those have great commentary. Usually their done by people in the 25+ age range. Usually these people have a really specialized skill set, software, computers, equipment. And they usually put serious effort as in 16-18hr work days into producing as much of a qu
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Heads up gamers, nobody wants to watch videos of you playing games, especially not your family or coworkers who are not 60-hour-a-week gamers, so please stop sending us Youtube links, okay? I'm never going to play in the NFL and you are never going to make a living playing games in your mom's basement, deal with it.
And what makes you think anyone wants to listen to you being a dick about (the many) people who happen to enjoy something you don't?
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I . . . don't think you understand this article.
Lets hope publishers and developers (Score:5, Insightful)
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You better believe it!
Sony is probably going to bake that into the developer handbook. That ought to add $10-$15 per game... And another "Xbox live" service mandatory with monthly fees to handle all the extra (forced) traffic. And an extra $15 for the special "sharing" button added to a $55 controller.
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it is not art. it is not gaming. it is a business.
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Its even more crappy if game developers try to "subtly push" you to support their spcial networking ambitions. Example: Asphalt 7 for android. A fun racing game, which i enjoy for short breaks or train travels. They have tasks, which are usually game-related, but at some point tasks appeared which were only reaalted to taking part in multiplayer events etc. now they block all the three slots available for tasks. I really dislike it. I dont intent to use the game as a multiplayer game, it was fine and fun wi
I cant wait... (Score:2)
I cant wait to stream used games...
Oh.
Best game recording ever! (Score:1)
Not As New As You'd Think (Score:5, Interesting)
Sony's real breakthrough with the PS4 might not be the specs, but its ability to turn every game you play into a multiplayer one.
This is not a breakthrough. They already did this with the PS3. Every time I turned the thing on I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game. When I wanted to stream Netflix videos, I'd spend 30-60 minutes in a tug of war between Sony, Netflix, Content Owners and Content Pirates... The Content Pirates would get an edge on Netflix, which would update its software to keep the Content Owners happy, but Sony would make the customers update over their network and lock up the machine for an hour once a week. That game got old so I stopped playing. When I wanted to use OtherOS, I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game between the hobbyists, Sony's marketing department, Sony's software developers, and Sony's legal team. Ultimately, that game got old too, so I stopped playing.
One would think Sony would learn from this, but even if one head of the Sony hydra learned, it couldn't focus on the concept for very long because the other heads are too busy snapping at it.
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Sony's real breakthrough with the PS4 might not be the specs, but its ability to turn every game you play into a multiplayer one.
This is not a breakthrough. They already did this with the PS3. Every time I turned the thing on I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game. When I wanted to stream Netflix videos, I'd spend 30-60 minutes in a tug of war between Sony, Netflix, Content Owners and Content Pirates... The Content Pirates would get an edge on Netflix, which would update its software to keep the Content Owners happy, but Sony would make the customers update over their network and lock up the machine for an hour once a week. That game got old so I stopped playing. When I wanted to use OtherOS, I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game between the hobbyists, Sony's marketing department, Sony's software developers, and Sony's legal team. Ultimately, that game got old too, so I stopped playing.
One would think Sony would learn from this, but even if one head of the Sony hydra learned, it couldn't focus on the concept for very long because the other heads are too busy snapping at it.
Can I have your PS3 then?
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When I wanted to use OtherOS, I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game between the hobbyists, Sony's marketing department, Sony's software developers, and Sony's legal team.
OtherOS was just a hack to put some computer functionality there to get around the EU game console tax.
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'zero' latency wireless monitor (Score:1)
The REAL hardware is a low latency encoder block in ATI's GPU, that is used to create an H264 video stream that ANY modern device downstream, including tablets, can decode. This is the same tech used for the 'tablet' controller provided with Nintendo's WiiU. Essentially, open standards (for wireless and decoding) and a special on-the-fly encode block provide the ability to have low latency wireless monitors, the very thing Intel and others FAILED to provide with a wireless HDMI solution.
For gaming, a wirele
MultiPLAYER? (Score:5, Insightful)
So it's already multiplayer when one guy plays a game and others watch?
In that case it's not that new. Even PacMan was multiplayer by that definition. Granted, mostly because we were waiting for that idiot to finally spend his last quarter so we can get a turn, but...
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Most of the time we play single player games with multiple people. Just hand over the controller when you die or are stuck. And we always try to help the person playing.
REAL social gaming!!
Zelda? (Score:2)
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Use the DVD as a Frisbee?
multiplayer fail - spectators are not players (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone needs to learn English.
If watching other people play games... (Score:5, Funny)
...is considered multiplayer can watching porn then be considered group sex?
I hope they fucking drown 'em in that shit (Score:1)
Having been fan of a not internet connected PS3, I'm going to skip the PS4 and just buy myself a nice linux gaming rig.
I hope this catches on because Youtube will get stuffed with these useless video's. I wonder if google really has unlimited storage