The xQc/Infinite Wealth Crossover Backlash Proves Clout Just Isn't Enough

This article is part of a ♛directory: Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Complete Guide

Summary

xQc's large following made him an attractive choice for Sega to promote Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
However, many fans of the Yakuza series felt that a streamer with genuine interest and knowledge of the games would have been a better fit.
The backlash against Sega's choice and the stream's outcome highlight that follower numbers alone aren't enough to effectively market a game. Sega's marketing approach may have been a waste of resources.

Late last week, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios made an unexpected announcement with a tweet that streamer , a former professional player who has since pivoted to gambling streams, would be play✨ing the o🦹pening of on stream. Fans of the series did not like this one bit.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:xQc is a controversial figure, and that’s made him a lot of money. He’s been s💫lapped with multiple bans from Twitch for reasons including DMCA violations and showing animals having sex. His reputation as an &😼ldquo;agent of chaos”, as TheGamer’s Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley puts it in the article linked above, has made him extraordinarily rich, as well as putting him firmly in the list of the most popular streamers on Twitch.

As of right now, x𓄧Qc has 12 million followers on Twitch, making him the fifth mo💞st popular streamer on the platform.

Why Sega chose him to promote its upcoming game is pretty clear – he’s got those sweet, sweet viewer numbers. It isn’t the stupidest marketing tactic in the world. If you’re trying to get your game introduced to a new demograph🔜ic of potential players, which in this series’ case would be the majority of the Western world, it makes sense to collaborate with a streamer whose regular viewership doesn&r🤡squo;t overlap that much with the people who are already going to buy your game. xQc has a huge viewership, so if you’re going purely by numbers, then sure, paying him a ton of money to play this game on stream makes sense.

But when you consider the kind of streamer xQc is, it doesn’t make sense at all, and Yakuza fans made 🌄it clear they felt a🍃 streamer who showed a genuine interest in the games would have been a better pick. He didn’t know the first thing about the games, . He also seemed to struggle with combat and the minigames, likely due to a complete lack of familiarity with the series. The only thing that seemed to catch his attention was , which makes sense considering, you know.

I generally think it’s a waste of energy to get angry about botched marketing attempts – after all, it’s not my job to make sure a game makes money, no matter how much I like that game. But I find Sega’s attempts to put Infinite Wealth in the Western mainstream bizarre. The series has en🔜ough clout to stand on its own two legs, especially after the launch of the exceptionally well-made and popular Yakuza 0, and throwing money and free copies at streamers who can’t even be bothered to look up the game they’re streaming first doesn’t seem liℱke a great use of a marketing budget.

If Sega wants to make the same mistakes marketing companies made when influencing first became a viable career and make deals with public personalities with the most followers instead of the most releva💎nce to its product, that is entirely its business. But the backlash against the choice and the ultimate result of the stream proves that a fanbase’s goodwill is a fickle thing and, more than that, that follower numbers aren’t enough to market a game. Unfortunately, no matter how bad a job he does, xQc continues to get paid for sponsorships. I guess the real loser here is Sega.