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Play cops and robbers from your mobile and computer.
Among us
has no more mystery.
No state-of-the-art graphics, no Oscar-worthy plot, and no complex controls.
In this video game there is not the slightest technical display.
Characters in two dimensions - worthy representatives of some eighties titles -, linear movements and a single goal: gather up to 10 friends to uncover which two players kill and sabotage the others during the game.
In between, discussions, sometimes dog-faced, to find out who the impostors are.
This simplicity has captivated Amazon-owned live streaming platform Twitch.
Both all kinds of
streamers
, such as Ibai Llanos and ElRubius, even public figures, such as the American congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and the soccer player Thibaut Courtois, vitiate the fashionable video game of the moment.
A trend that has skyrocketed Twitch metrics.
Ocasio-Cortez reached 450,000 viewers on her channel on Tuesday and Ibai easily surpasses the 100,000 mark each day that she broadcasts
Among Us
.
And if you look only at the title, it is on the verge of reaching 100 million downloads worldwide.
However, the success does not respond to any
marketing
strategy
of the developers or anything like that.
Launched in June 2018, it was the final degree project of students Marcus Bromander and Forest Williard.
More than two years have elapsed for his
indie
company
, InnerSloth, to break the market - about 70% of all downloads have been produced in the last two months.
Twitch and the content creators are ultimately responsible for this achievement.
As happened in the summer with Fall Guys, Among Us has once again demonstrated the importance of live broadcast platforms to elevate certain video games, including those that most
gamers
had never heard of.
Hector Puente, a doctor in video games from the Complutense University of Madrid, explains that
Among Us
has several ingredients to captivate Twitch or YouTube viewers.
The most important is its ability so that, at any time during the games, we can follow it.
We understand what is happening, they are short-lived and there is no argument involved.
“It is agile, fast and there is no convoluted narrative.
This is great for those who broadcast live because gameplay is more important than any other feature.
It's very easy to see its content ”.
It hooks millions of users behind the screens for the situations it generates.
It is a funny audiovisual product to watch.
Entertain, which is an indispensable part of the business of these platforms.
Many viewers will want after noticing Ocasio-Cortez or ElRubius to enjoy with their friends just as they do, but it is not the usual pattern with this video game.
“I have acquaintances who don't play anything and enjoy watching
streamers
.
Among Us
allows the co-creation of content with the public.
It undeniably makes it easy for it to be so in vogue, ”says Puente.
Paradigm shift
The industry is quite obsessed with achieving the magic formula for success.
Among Us
has once again twisted the most elementary beliefs.
Technical and visual quality used to go hand in hand with commercial success, but these two-dimensional and other-era stick figures have questioned it.
No longer do you need to go crazy with getting an immersive and realistic experience to satisfy the palates of gamers.
A player who, in this title, as soon as he opens it lowers any expectations due to the aesthetics it shows.
“Nobody expects it to be milk.
The grace is in socializing and dramatizing a performance of good or bad in each game.
It is made for friends and to laugh ”, Puente ditch.
It's hard to think that InnerSloth would touch current numbers without the backing of content creators.
They disseminate and generate trends at high speed.
They viralize games at a frenetic pace, though only a few reach stardom.
The luck of
Among Us
is that it has allowed
streamers to
fill hours of broadcast, feed back each other's channels and more and more people want to join in the fun they show.
“They are opinion leaders.
Their practices have weight and people want to imitate and reproduce them ”, concludes Puente.
The moment of consolidation comes now.
Its creators have announced changes and improvements to stay on top.
Of course, the sale of the fifth generation of consoles is just around the corner and other video games, for example,
Phasmophobia
, threaten to become the new trend on Twitch.
With
Fall Guys
it has already happened: their summer of popularity has given way to an autumn of anonymity, despite the fact that they released a new season only two weeks ago.
And both titles are very similar, especially with respect to the user experience they offer.
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