Don't give early access to big youtubers

Their is tons of truth behind that lol i NEVER EVER watch the big name youtubers because they always have TONSSSS of spoilers about the games i'm going to get so me and my friends always avoid them

 

Does it really matter? If they get it a little early then it means it is almost ready, you dont have to watch the youtube videos. I have personally never seen any letsplay or youtube stuff of games. But I am sure I will see a preview on a gaming website and will either read it and get more hyped or ignore it because i dont want to spoil the game. I will like to explore it all myself for the first time.
So lets be honest. It wont affect you either way and more sales that could be gained from this type of exposure will ensure the devs can make the next project as well as continue to support this game post release.

 

This can become a touchy subject. It has both pros and cons and both sides of the arguments are half decent.
Lets see...
Day 1 sales are important.
Minecraft was built almost completely on YouTubers, any Youtuber had a chance.
It is free advertisement.
By giving specific YouTubers the game early drives more traffic to their channel and thus can turn into a temporary monopoly.
Since there will be a beta, what will be considered "Day 1"? The release of the beta or the full release of the game?
What happens if someone give a game a bad "review", then will other companies stop giving these specific YouTubers early access even if the review was honest?

But the big question I have is... what happens when YouTubers become to powerful? Every since YouTube was bought by Google, its been ever increasingly hard for smaller channels to get attention. YouTube used to have "random daily feature videos", but now their entire layout is devoted to getting people to check out the already "popular" channels. While it is argued that the bigger YouTubers have "earned" the chance to get things earlier, it also means the playing field isn't fair and equal now. Bigger YouTubers will bigger and smaller channels will start to vanish even further. I'm not saying its impossible to get noticed, its just increasingly harder these days, and this doesn't help, even if it is a small factor in the overall aspect of things.

 

I have yet to see any cons for giving out early copies to certain people in the press/media.

"It's not fair" isn't a con..

 

What happens if someone gave a game a bad "review", then will other companies stop giving these specific YouTubers early access even if the review was honest?
By giving specific YouTubers the game early drives more traffic to their channel and thus can turn into a temporary monopoly.

And the field being "unfair" is a con, it hurts the little guy.
When looking at how minecraft went about, ask yourself. If YouTubers had to wait like the rest of us, would the sales be the same as that of Day 1?

 

Nothing wrong with youtubers getting early access. They do for other games in order to promote them, why not Starbound ? Also nothing wrong with the team receiving more funding considering the scope of the game and their hard, dedicated work. We will all get access when it will be at the appropriate stage of development (I'm pretty sure they have an agenda from what I've been reading). And if a youtuber gets access earlier you'll just get more footage of the game.

 

A release day is definitely exactly what it used to be. It's very very important.

I'd like to clear something up that I think is a pretty common misconception. We made a lot a lot a lot more than we expected on pre-orders, and that's awesome! We also have a very large team who have poured a huge buttload of man-hours into this game.
$1.5million seems like a lot, and we were prepared to work with a lot less in order to get Starbound released. We took a leap of faith and opened pre-orders instead of taking an advance that realistically wouldn't have been enough to cover development, and the risk certainly paid off.
But when you divide the money made across the team and the business, yes, release date sales still matter very much. Haha. The team still needs an income post-release! And profits need to be made to sustain a business.

Budgets aren't just determined by how much money you put into a game, they're determined by the man-hours put into it too-- even if you're not actually making money on those hours. Time is money, right? If you put $500 into the development of a game that you work on by yourself for 40 hours a week for a year, doing a job that should normally net you, I dunno, say $50k a year? The game's actual budget is not $500, it's $50,500. And that's for a really small game! That budget quickly multiplies when you add more people to your team.

I'm not sure I've noticed small Youtube channels having difficulty gaining popularity. I see videos going viral and Youtubers making careers of their channels all the time. Because they put the work in, and occasionally because they've gotten lucky and one particular video has gained popularity very very quickly. But for "big name" Youtubers, running their channel is often their actual job, and as with making anything fun into a career, you have to work very very hard at it.

If a small Youtube channel is having trouble reaching its audience, it needs to learn to take better advantage of social media, or rethink and adjust the way they produce content to be more interesting, funny or otherwise appealing to potential viewers. I'm really not sure it's an issue of the big dudes monopolizing Youtube game footage.

To be fair, it's not really our problem re: smaller channels having difficulties gaining popularity because it's not a developer's responsibility to make anyone a Youtube star (you don't see anyone expecting developers to turn their games blog into the next Polygon or Destructoid), but I wanted to answer anyway.

 

Someone else getting the game earlier than you hurts you in no way, shape, or form. In-fact it helps everyone. Press reviews and let's play videos (for a good game) bolster sales, which fund the developers, which lets them add more content, which makes a more appealing game, which means a bigger community, which means more mods and community created content.

If a company makes a good game, then they have nothing to fear from a single malicious review as the aggregated review scores will speak louder than the one guy who gave it a 25/100. Finally, giving the game to certain reviewers will drive traffic to their channel... So..?

I don't even get that one. Are people who make youtube videos supposed to not have too much traffic? Even if the game came out at the same time for everyone, the people with the most popular channels would still get more traffic than you if you decided to put up a Starbound video.. Releasing the game for everyone at the same time doesn't stop this, and it's not even a problem that needs to be stopped.. More people watch American Idol than Warehouse 13. So more companies put their commercials on the channel and time American Idol is playing than on the ScyFy channel. Those time slots are also expensive as hell, so the "little guy" generally can't get in.

That's how marketing works?

 

I don't want to seem rude but why don't you just lock the thread? i mean the truth is the truth and it really doesn't matter what anyone else says because you're just going to do it anyway...

i mean i'm fine with it either way because starbound is going to be a great game it's up to the people who hate this idea whether to watch it or not

 

I could do that, but I was having fun discussing marketing.
Also the thread hasn't gotten out of hand at all, and the OP's question sparked an interesting discussion of misconceptions about the games industry.

 

Still i trust in you guys to make the right decision for starbound and yea when it hits steam people will go mad for it since most likely it will be a featured game and all you need to do to grab peoples attention is to show the side scrolling pixels lol

 

Of course it isn't, you and the rest of the Chucklefish team have your job. The decisions due however indirectly effect others. The Yogscast grew big because of Minecraft, and they had the same chance as everyone else. Its less likely to get noticed in that way again if certain YouTubers are handed it before anyone else. Work, hard work, is a major factor in any YouTuber's success, but opportunity is another one as well, even if it might be smaller. I'm just saying, it does help if the playing field is as flat and equal as possible. But its not you or Chucklefish's concern.

I'm pretty surprised everything hasn't gone up in flames, the last 2 times the forum's had this discussion it was WWIII.

 

That could happen! But it's never smart to bank on something like that. Always better to depend on intelligent marketing.

 

There is a lot to marketing as well, ... and marketing is an expensive procedure. According to a study performed by Jack Marshall of Digiday. To "own" some of the most prominent ad locations on the web, it can run upwards of $450,000 for a homepage takeover on Yahoo for a SINGLE DAY. The fact that YouTubers exist, and are willing to perform Game Reviews, Let's Plays, and many other types of videos of games and other content, mainly to boost their own views and subscriber numbers. ... Companies are willing to give them a little piece of the action, in exchange for what is basically free advertising.

I know myself, I would have never purchased Minecraft, or Terraria, if it wasn't for these YouTubers actually playing the game, giving an insight into the game, and allowing me to see more than what a "limited demo" would likely let you see hands down, despite not being able to play the game in the first place. It caused me to get interested, purchase the game, and get hooked.

 

Well, to be honest, we live in an economy where the rich get richer. It isn't fair some small youtubers won't get the game early, but there are simply too many of them to go around. I can see how this isn't fair, but that's just life, and in life, we must sometimes accept a loss, and move onto other avenues to improve ourselves.

 

most if not all of the games I purchase are because of youtubers who have gotten a game way earlier then the rest of the world I have TONS of "lets play" youtubers subscribed and if they get a game before it's out and make a lets play I watch it and see if the game is really all it's cracked up to be and I listen to there personal opinions on the game while there playing it I don't feel swindled cause they get to play the game before I do I'm happy cause they help me decide if I really want to buy and play this game though I have already pre-ordered Starbound and feel that the game will most certainly be worth the money I spent on it I still would not feel any less about those youtubers who may of gotten the game way before I have I'd still watch there videos and be happy to know that the game will soon be in my hands to enjoy

 

I have to say, the only thing wronged if Chucklefish would do this is the sense of entitlement the people waiting for the game has. This being you, me, everyone else on these forums.

There was a time when I did not know what Starbound was, but even if this is no longer a fact and I did learn of this game through other means, there are plenty of people out there (think billions) who don't know what this game is. When I first learned of FTL (a Rogue-like sci-fi game that I adore) I did so through Total Biscuit's WTF is... series. After seeing his episode on FTL, I not only knew what it was, how good it was, I knew I wanted it - it's just the kind of game I enjoy. Bough it right then from Steam.

Now imagine if I did not know of Starbound, and TB did NOT make a WTF is... about it, say, a week before the beta released? Let's say he made the show on beta-launch. I would miss the beta launch and the option to get into it (unless ofc I have misunderstood how Chucklefish plan to run their beta and it's access) and I would feel like I missed out. I would not have the option of dropping 500 Norwegian Crowns on the game to pre-order, get into the beta, pay for the game, and support Chucklefish in their making of Starbound.

I would have to wait until the game came out. Fair enough technically, but I would miss my chance to help out. For all those that has NOT been informed of Starbound yet and who may want to get into the beta for all the reasons WE want into the beta, would it not help if TB and many other YT'ers released free commercial/promotions telling people about Starbound before the beta started, giving that many more people access to it and providing Chucklefish with that much more revenue, promotion and beta players/testers to help polish the game before launch?

I think, that if Chucklefish actually did release this beta access to any YT'er before the rest of us it would not be because those people were more 'privileged' but because those people would help spread the news earlier and give more people the chance to pick up the beta access and support the developers making this game.

In closing: All of the above is somewhat moot however; Chucklefish has already stated (IIRC) that EVERYONE that pre-purchased would get into the beta "As soon as it's ready" - ergo, we will all get in as soon as we actually CAN, we will not get in a week after we could, but be barred because a dozen YT'ers were provided special access before the beta was done. We get in as soon as we physically (or perhaps digitally) can do so, so your fears are somewhat unwarranted, I believe.

Unless ofc Chucklefish change their mind considering all that I wrote above, but I for one don't think that will happen, even if I DO think is might be a smart move, from a business perspective, and would not complain much should it happen. But again, I doubt that.

Have some faith Skippy3, Chuckefish won't leave you out in the cold when they already promised they would not

 

I'll accept losses but I'll never ignore the problems that exist. By the way, what do you mean by "there are simply to many of them to go around"?

 

Hate to go off-topic, but I must say this: The rich get richer, poor people like myself get poorer just trying to survive. I'm doing everything I can to make it on a day-by-day basis. It ain't fair, but that's life. One of these days, I'll stumble across something that will turn everything around for me, and I'll be able to manage having some of the luxuries that the rich can afford.

 

... Seriously? It's not a question of being fair or not fair. It's a question of promoting the game, and important YouTubers can help to advertize a game quite well. It's a question of publicity, like you said yourself. It all comes down to a marketing strategy, and Chucklefish would be wise to do so.

You don't complain when reviewers from important video games websites are able to test and, well, give a review of a game you're expecting. So, really, I don't understand your reaction.

Edit: Dang, beaten by Mollygos by a fair margin. I really need to read the whole topic before posting.