The internet has allowed for new forms of entertainment, including watching others doing hobbies. Either as video or live streaming, you can watch people draw, crochet, build model kits, open trading cards, rebuild an F1 car engine, perform open heart surgery (probably), learn how to do things of various levels of importance to the universe or teach you how to do them. AMSR is just someone making noises that calm people. The trick is that the creator has to be entertaining, interesting, and/or informative if not all three. They even made vacation videos interesting, one of the big running gags of conversation and television, proving it was just that your Aunt Edna got more out of her trip to Oxnard that you do watching it versus when Jackiechanfan85b showed off his.
From the early days of the modern internet, one of the first internet born entertainment options are “let’s play’s”, where you watch other people play video games. Now there are streaming channels on Sling and Plex among other freestream channels that are just people playing video games. That started with short videos posted to YouTube and let’s play websites. Then Twitch came along, and now livestreaming those games while talking to and with the audience made the let’s play, live or recorded, a big part of internet and gaming cultures.
And yet there are people who make the games would rather that didn’t happen. Not all, mind you. Smaller studios see them as free advertising, and it wasn’t just Markiplier making Five Nights At Freddy’s so successful it has novels, it’s own theatrical movie, and enough imitators to fill a pizza parlor. No matter how many people were playing the games on the internet, it needed other gamers to also buy the game and play them…or at least buy the game. They have your money, then it’s only the developers who want to see people playing and loving their games unless they’re in it for the messaging or the money. Or both.
An article came out recently by Japanese site Nikkan Sports. Translated by Google Translate for me, comedian Hidetaka Kano was discussing his own streaming and brought up a conversation with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. He also said he went to Capcom for permission to stream the game. We’ve seen Nintendo of Japan push back against anyone streaming their games in the belief that watching a stream means less sales rather than more, though there are plenty of indie game developers who would beg to differ. So then the president of Nintendo Of America at the time, Reggie Fils-Aimé, who fought for the let’s play community. I learned of this interview from a Bleeding Fool article by Mike Murphy. I understand where Mikami is coming from, but I’m not sure I share that perspective, which still isn’t as harsh as Murphy made it sound.
First, from Nikkan Sports:
Comedian Hidetaka Kano (44) appeared on TV Asahi’s “Mitorizu Jan” (Thursdays at 12:15 AM) on the 18th, and was impressed by a comment from a legendary game creator.
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Kano, who streams games on his own YouTube channel, confessed that he had been conflicted about revealing the contents of the game, saying, “When I play ‘Resident Evil,’ there are little bits of story and puzzles to solve, and I felt like I was spoiling all of that for the viewers.” He continued, “I wondered about the spoiler issue. I did get permission from Capcom, the game company, but I wondered what the actual situation was.”
If you know the video or streamer is playing the game, and it’s clearly in the title or some graphic on the page what game is being played on Twitch and YouTube Gaming, you clearly don’t care about spoilers. If it’s a game I want to play, I won’t watch a playthrough until I finish the game, unless I get really stuck and need some help either getting through entirely or solving a minor issue that’s blocking me. Even with Microsoft Solitaire’s daily challenges I’ll watch someone’s video partway through until I think I can figure out the rest on my own. I do it rarely and only when I get really frustrated. I want to solve the puzzle myself, but if I’m playing a Portal game and don’t know what I’m doing, I’ll switch on the creator commentary for some advice in that section, then turn it back off. Or in a replay I’ll leave the commentary on for the curiosity. Also, I need to replay Portal and finish the sequel. Basically, it’s just like using a strategy guide, only you get to see it in action.
Around that time, he had the opportunity to talk with producer Shinji Mikami, known as the “creator” of “Resident Evil,” and said, “I decided to ask him something like, ‘A lot of people are streaming games these days, what do you actually think about it?'” He continued, “I was prepared to quit immediately if Producer Mikami said, ‘Well, that’s a bit…'”
Then, he received the response, “‘If viewers watching the game stream are satisfied just by watching it through to the end, then it’s not that great of a game,'” to which the studio guests applauded, saying, “That’s cool,” and “It’s amazing that he can say that.” He also revealed Mikami’s words, “‘Our job is to make games that make people want to complete them themselves, even after seeing someone else complete them,'” and happily added, “When he told me, ‘Keep going,’ I was already happily going at it.”
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “it’s not that great a game”. There are games I personally don’t want to play or won’t have time to (even if I had the money to get them) simply because while the story interests me the play style doesn’t. Bioshock Infinite was a good story but I’m not the type of guy comfortable with cutting a dude’s face open with the auto winch hook used to zipline around Columbia, or go back to Rapture as an older version of Elizabeth on a revenge ploy that included frying a Little Sister if it meant getting after a version of Comstock that hated what he became and vanished through the multiverse. It’s an interesting to watch but in those cases I wouldn’t want to be Booker or Elizabeth, though I’m willing to be Chell or Batman. The Kingdom Hearts games and Final Fantasy Online don’t look fun for me, but clearly I’m a minor opinion holder (if you’re shocked, welcome to my site because you’re clearly new). Watching how insane the story gets is still fascinating, while watching a player who tries to explain the franchise.
He then added, “I’ve also heard this from Yuji Horii, the creator of ‘Dragon Quest,’ and he said exactly the same thing.” He was thrilled, saying, “That’s the kind of feeling the gods and legends have.”
“Like and subscribe!”
Whether you’re playing or just watching, you’re still being entertained. The game company might not have made that money anyway, or maybe it will drive people to play the game because the let’s player is clearly enjoying him/herself, or themselves if it’s a group game. RV There Yet is only fun if you have friends to play with or just want to watch your favorite YouTube talents struggle to actually get the thing over the hill without popping a few parts off and being eaten by a bear. It’s not even fun for me to watch for long periods of time, so I doubt I’d want to play it. There are also playthroughs online without commentary, so you can just focus on the story of a game you wouldn’t or in some cases can’t play. I don’t have the system to play the Transformers: Armada tie-in game sadly, and it’s long since out of print, though I’d really like to play it. Still, getting to see the story is nice.
That’s why I’m not getting the same reading of Mikami’s comments that Murphy did. He even titled his article “Resident Evil Creator Slams Streaming Culture”, but he didn’t seem to mind Kano streaming the game. He was just disappointed that people didn’t want to play it because he worked hard on it. Maybe we had different translations?
“If viewers watching the game stream are satisfied just by watching it through to the end, then the game must only be so good,” Mikami said, according to a translation from Japanese.
The comment cuts to a core issue for developers. If a game does not create a strong urge for players to engage directly, it may fail to deliver a compelling interactive experience. Kano explained that Mikami believes developers should aim higher.
“It’s our job to make games that make people want to finish them with their own hands, even after watching someone else beat them,” Kano said, recalling Mikami’s view.
Like I said, they want you to play the game they worked on, and they want it to be good. Bad developers try to hide bad games under social issues, “media literacy” or the video game equivalent, or accusing the player of being unhappy they can’t play games. I’m not very good (and yet I’ve been trying to get a let’s play series going for years) but I can still tell a good game from a bug ridden poorly controlled nightmare with a story so bad it brings the industry down as a form of storytelling. I wouldn’t call it a slam on streaming culture. It may or may not have been intended to push developers to “git gud” as they tell bad or casual players happy to see a less intense skill option in a game. I’m reading translated comments from an article reporting a third hand telling of someone’s opinion given on a TV broadcast I wouldn’t understand because I don’t speak the language. I just think he wasn’t as harsh about it as the commentary article makes it sound.
The debate highlights a tension in today’s gaming economy. Streaming drives visibility and marketing reach, but it may also reduce direct sales if viewers feel they have already experienced the product. That tradeoff could shape how studios design future titles, especially as budgets rise and competition for attention grows.
I clearly don’t have enough gameplay footage in my media library.
Meanwhile the success of the Freddy Fazbear Franchise has people creating games specifically to be played online in the hopes that so-called “party games” and Augmented Reality Games (ARGs) will look so fun that they’ll play it with their own friends, or their audience, or other multiplayer games where a story doesn’t exist beyond “this is the goal and why”. That’s been a staple of video games since a carpenter later turned plumber was trying to climb a bunch of structures chasing a giant ape to rescue a girl. I watch streams of games I can’t or don’t want to play but find the streamer fun to watch playing those games, and I may or may not play those games myself. If not, the company wasn’t getting my money no matter how good the game was. I don’t think you can really blame let’s plays for a game not being bought and played by someone who wouldn’t have played it otherwise anyway.
Mikami’s remarks land at a time when the industry is grappling with changing player habits. His stance suggests that strong gameplay and personal engagement still matter most, even in an era dominated by content creators and passive viewing.
It always mattered. It’s the difference between a good or bad Assassin’s Creed game, what separates Dragon Age: Origins from The Veilguard. I wouldn’t play either one but watching someone rag on the game while playing it was a hoot. Same with Mixtape. It’s the gaming equivalent of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Rifftrax.
In all, I don’t think let’s plays and game streaming has that much of an impact. Maybe it gets the word out that these game exist and are fun to play, or warns them not to play the game. Perhaps the fun is in watching someone else play a game you can’t or won’t. It’s more than a review only when you look at entertainment value for the watcher. Not many people watching a baseball game is going to go play baseball, and yet more get made every year and sold in regular stores. MLB isn’t going to Walmart to get baseballs. There are plenty of people who watch an eSports event that wouldn’t play the game but enjoy the competition of two players, like standing around an arcade machine watching people play like in the old days before home gaming consoles pushed arcades to the background.
Marketers need to learn to work with gaming streams rather than fight them, without trying to use them to trick people into buying a terrible game. Accept you’ve created a new form of entertainment and let the let’s players earn the money to buy more games. Maybe the next one will be more appealing to the masses, or maybe your currently streamed game will get a lot of players who don’t stream. It depends on the watcher, the player, and the game.
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