Just an article I read this afternoon that I thought one or two others might find an interest in since it is related to game making. There was a bit there on streamers which I found interesting as Chein goes on about streamers a lot ... but this article, at least, indicates there is some power to sell games for the big streamers.
https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/28/17911372/there-are-too-many-video-games-what-now-indiepocalypse
https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/28/17911372/there-are-too-many-video-games-what-now-indiepocalypse
As the daily deluge of games continues to pour into these disparate storefronts — and many others — developers of all sizes are forced to reckon with the debilitating effect that the crowding shores are having on every level of development, from solo developers building 8-bit dreams in their garages to AAA behemoths cranking away at massive shared worlds. But while enthusiastic hobbyists might simply return to their day jobs if their indie dreams stay unfulfilled, the scale of big-budget games spirals ever skyward, meaning that more and more employees may lose their jobs if the studio’s one big bet doesn’t pan out.
“The market’s hugely different now from when I started,” says Todd Hollenshead, the former president and CEO of the breakthrough shooter factory id Software, who recently joined indie studio Nerve Software. “Now, a big publisher like Ubisoft would look at a game that sells only a couple million units — which is more than what Doom and Quake sold — as something not worth their time. I was the 13th employee at id; I was the 10th employee at Nerve. The possibilities are very different. Today, you can’t make a game that moves the needle for those guys without less than a hundred, 200 people. The costs are just astronomical.”