A creative director at Google Stadia has suggested that streamers should pay developers and publishers royalties for streaming their games.
Alex Hutchinson, creative lead behind the likes of Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 4, tweeted on Thursday.
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Stadia Creative Director Suggests Streamers Should Pay Game Developers Royalties
Check out the tweets below:
The real truth is the streamers should be paying the developers and publishers of the games they stream. They should be buying a license like any real business and paying for the content they use.
— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick)
October 22, 2020
“The real truth is the streamers should be paying the developers and publishers of the games they stream. They should be buying a license like any real business and paying for the content they use," Hutchinson said.
The controversial take saw Stadia trend online, with multiple prominent streamers such as DanTDM and Froste responding.
terrible take. The amount of exposure streamers and YouTubers give to games just by playing them is worth major $$$ by itself. Some games ONLY market through influencers now because it's so strong and works.
— ᴅᴀɴᴛᴅᴍ💎 (@dantdm)
October 22, 2020
Game developers have the right to DMCA strike anyone streaming/uploading content of their game, they always have. The reason they don't is because its a win-win situation where the game gets free promo, and streamer makes a living from it. This dude really works at Google Stadia? https://t.co/9N1lt13v63
— Froste 💯 (@Froste)
October 22, 2020
Nonetheless, Hutchinson doubled down on his opinion:
“Amazing to me that people are upset at someone saying that the creators of content should be allowed to make some of the money from other people using their content for profit.”
In a statement to 9to5Google, Google distanced itself from Hutchinson's views.
"The recent tweets by Alex Hutchinson, creative director at the Montreal Studio of Stadia Games and Entertainment, do not reflect those of Stadia, YouTube or Google."
While working on Far Cry 4, Hutchinson told Polygon that the game didn't feature a playable female character because of a "workload" issue, causing some controversy.
His current studio, Typhoon, was acquired by Google earlier this year following the release of its first game, Journey to the Savage Planet.