More Trouble At Kick, YouTube Create App, Unity Apologizes

More Trouble At Kick, YouTube Create App, Unity Apologizes

Happy Tuesday Streamers,

This past week was extremely news heavy! Today, we’ll be talking about everything from the Ice Poseidon Escort Controversy to the announcement of a new video editor from YouTube. We’ve got a lot to cover so I’ll keep this intro short and sweet.

Don’t forget to review the Tuesday To-Dos toward the end of the newsletter. They offer 5 actionable things you can do this week!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read!

Ciao,
Brian

This Week’s Top Stories

Ice Poseidon Escort Controversy Highlights Major Issues With The Kick Live Streaming Platform

Ice Poseidon, a popular Kick Streamer whose real name is Paul Denino, is currently embroiled in controversy as viewers express their outrage over his alleged payment of $500 to a stranger to engage with an escort during one of his recent livestreams.

The livestream went from bad to worse once the escort expressed some discomfort and decided to leave the hotel room. The stranger interacting with the escort raced to the door and attempted to block her exit with his arm demanding she return the money he paid for her.

Kick did nothing to stop what was unfolding. To make matters even worse, Kick Co-Founder Ed Craven was among the many chatters watching and enjoying these events in real time.

The controversial livestream divided creators across Kick, YouTube, and Twitch. Many were very supportive of Ice Poseidon and Kick’s response (or lack thereof) while others were disgusted by what had occurred and demanded harsher action be taken. The discourse led to many Kick streamers publicly supporting Kick or making the decision to leave the platform all together. During a Twitter Space on September 24th, hundreds of Kick streamers banded together to share their thoughts and how they felt Kick could improve as a platform. While the Space ran for hours throughout the day, it wasn’t until Ice Poseidon himself showed up to offer a fake apology and troll the audience that the gathering derailed.

After some noticeable silence, Kick finally published a statement on Twitter expressing their willingness to learn from these mistakes and make changes. The coming months will show how serious their commitment to these changes will be.

Why It Matters: If you are unfamiliar with Ice Poseidon, you might not be aware of his previous controversies such as getting swatted on a plane in 2017, sexual assault allegations in 2018, and allegedly scamming fans out of $500K in a cryptocurrency scheme. He has also been banned from Twitch for the 2017 incident.

All that to say this is pretty standard behavior for Ice. I think the real story is the Kick platform itself. Creators like Ice Poseidon are unfortunately quite common on Kick, a new live streaming platform I’ve talked about frequently in this newsletter. Kick has made it very clear that it takes no issue with harboring these creators and giving them even more visibility (and contracts). Despite their half-hearted “apology” and promise to make amends, I highly doubt Kick will take any meaningful action to rectify the many issues that have occurred on their platform.

A platform without problematic creators doesn’t exist. No matter what platform you stream on (Twitch, YouTube, Rumble, Kick, and Facebook) you’ll run into less than desirable behavior from other creators. However, I think Kick has a unique problem in that it is a new platform that wants to differentiate itself by not enforcing a strict content policy, but it is THAT very decision that continues to set it back as a serious competitor to rival live streaming services. If Kick wants to be treated like a proper live streaming service, it needs to stop sitting on the fence and decide what kind of platform it wants to be.

Personally, I would love for their to be more competitors in the live streaming space, but I don’t think Kick in its current state should be one of them. Kick platforms problematic creators and does little to maintain the safety and wellbeing of its community members.

If you currently stream on Kick or plan to do so, what are your thoughts on what happened? Please feel free to DM me on Twitter.

Unity Pivots On Controversial New Pricing Scheme

In a major turnaround, Unity has apologized for its new runtime fee policy and announced a number of changes that will address the concerns of developers.

Unity President Marc Whitten shared an open letter to the community on Friday, saying that the company had "heard the feedback" and was "making changes."

Among the changes are:

• No runtime fees for any game developed with the current version of Unity.

• The Runtime Fee will apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond.

• Unity Personal plans will remain free and not incur a Runtime Fee.

• The revenue cap forcing Personal plan users to upgrade to the next tier will be increased from $100,000 to $200,000.

• Games with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will not incur a Runtime Fee.

• Unity developers will only be responsible for the terms applicable for the version of Unity they are using.

• Games subject to the Runtime Fee will have the option of either a 2.5% revenue share or the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with the game each month.

• The term “installs” was replaced with “initial engagements” to help clarify what end user action would constitute a Runtime Fee. With this definition, a single user who installs the same title multiple times or on multiple devices will not count toward the Runtime Fee total.

Why This Matters: No matter how Unity responded it is important to understand that the damage is already done. Unity’s heavy-handed announcement shocked the gaming development industry and caused a tear in the community that will be difficult to mend. While these updated terms will address the majority of issues in the original announcement, there are still many developers who plan to look for an alternative home for their next game title vowing to break away from the Unity platform.

Unity owns the largest share of the game engine market with 38% of game developers using Unity as their primary game engine. Content Creators should be aware that games built on Unity, especially upcoming titles, may encounter issues as a result of Unity’s new pricing policy. Games may be cancelled, delayed, or may drastically pivot to make their launch date. This isn’t isolated to upcoming games, but also previously published games that may have huge updates coming in the near future. Keep an eye on your favorite indie game studios to understand how they plan to tackle this industry-wide issue.

YouTube Announces YouTube Create, A New Mobile App That Will Make Creating YouTube Shorts Even Easier

YouTube has announced a new mobile app called YouTube Create, which is designed to help creators create and edit videos more easily. The app offers a variety of features, including:

• Precision editing and trimming

• Automatic captioning

• Voiceover capabilities

• Access to copyright-safe sound effects and music

• Library of filters, effects, and transitions

The YouTube Create beta is currently available in 8 countries on Android devices and will be available on iOS in 2024.

Why This Matters: YouTube is going to do everything in its power to stay ahead of TikTok. With over 1 billion active users, TikTok is quickly catching up to YouTube's 2.3 billion active users. YouTube's answer to TikTok is Shorts, its short-form video format.

YouTube Shorts has been a huge success, with over 70 billion daily views. However, TikTok is still the market leader in short-form video. YouTube is clearly invested in Shorts, and the YouTube Create mobile app is a sign of that commitment. YouTube Shorts is a valuable tool for creators because it can help them to grow their audience and reach new viewers. Shorts videos are more likely to be seen by new viewers than long-form videos, and Shorts creators can also benefit from YouTube's algorithm, which is designed to promote engaging Shorts content.

Smart creators will continue to invest time publishing Shorts content. YouTube Create is a free mobile app that makes it easier to create and edit Shorts videos, and YouTube is offering a number of incentives for creators to publish Shorts content.

📊Weekly Poll📊

This week, I want to focus your attention on the controversies surrounding the Kick live streaming platform. This isn’t the first controversy to make headlines and it most likely won’t be the last. If you’re a streamer or content creator, I want to know: Do you feel these continued controversies impact Kick’s ability to grow as a platform long term? Use the link below to participate in our weekly poll. Leave a comment if you’d like to elaborate on your thoughts!

Sound off in our weekly poll!