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Everspace Dev Paid Thousands for Influencer 'Morons' to Promote the Game

Make sure you know who you're paying to do your promotion. 

Brittany Vincent

April 19, 2018 9:35 AM

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When you pay an influencer or streamer to promote your game, make sure they don’t play it like a “fucking moron”.

If you're thinking of paying a streamer to promote your game, you may want to do some thorough research on their marketing skills before hiring them. As it turns out, some of them just aren't very good at their jobs, according to Rockfish Games developer Michael Schade, representing the space title Everspace.

Schade, speaking at the Reboot Develop conference, revealed that the company had paid up to 5,000 euros per hour to hire a professional streamer to play Everspace. As it turns out, they chose someone who was, well, "shit" at playing the game. Those are Schade's words, as he certainly didn't mince any when speaking during the conference. Schade went on to say that out of the 20 YouTubers and "influencers" they ended up hiring to play Everspace, only about 3 or 4 of them ended up working out.

“The rest was okay, or a disaster,” Schade says, which is a little unsurprising, especially when there are plenty of streamers out there mixed in with the hard-working and trustworthy sort who are in the game to make a quick buck.

“Streamers are way more expensive. The most expensive stream, we paid 5,000 (euros) per hour and we had to book him for two hours. Actually his opening line was ‘I have to stop playing Destiny 2 now because I’m on a sponsored stream to play a space game and I don’t like space games’." Schade saved his truest thoughts for the end of that tirade.

“[...]And he played like a complete moron...a fucking moron."

Because of the company's issues with clients who didn't seem to take the stream seriously or acted in a disrespectful or unacceptable manner with their pricing in mind, the dev cautioned the audience to watch a streamer's videos before hiring them.

"The next time we work with an influencer we’re going to make sure they are really good at a 3D space game otherwise we’re not going to do this,” he concluded. You should consider the same kind of research if you're ever in a position where you need to hire a similar set of talent. It may seem like common sense, but you never know who exactly you're working with unless you do your own due diligence first. 

Brittany Vincent

Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!